


Fate's Death

by HopelessOwls



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Language, Romance, Smut, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-24 10:43:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 69,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/939036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopelessOwls/pseuds/HopelessOwls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A goddess has been kidnapped and Nico di Angelo and Rachel Elizabeth Dare are on a quest to go find her, along with a new friend. But if rescuing a goddess wasn't hard enough, Nico and Rachel have to deal with their feelings for each other along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm new to this site and if I tagged anything weird or rated wrong or whatever, please tell me. This is rated mature just to be safe, but there will be smut, it just won't be super graphic (maybe) and language and violence and all that. This is my first fic, so reviews and constrictive criticism are greatly appreciated(: 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

* * *

Chapter One:

 

Nico di Angelo materialized in Cabin #13 at Camp Half-Blood and looked around at the familiar sight. Nothing had changed since he had last been here, except for the impressive amount of dust that had settled over everything. He wasn’t surprised. He had protected the cabin by putting up wards around it to keep people out when he wasn’t around, including the cleaning harpies. They couldn’t get in so the place was never cleaned. Not that Nico minded. He hardly ever stayed here and he had his own helpers.

Nico summoned three skeletons and left them with instructions to make the cabin habitable again. He walked over to the door, his footsteps muffled by the thick layer of dust, and went outside. He looked over his shoulder at the cabin and was glad to see that the torches were still burning green flames. His eyes lifted to the skull above the doorway and thought about the day he put it there. He remembered it clearly because he had to replace one of its ruby eyes and half the side of it when one of the workers on Hecate’s cabin dropped one of the magic blocks they had been using to build their cabin and it exploded. His poor skull was the only casualty, though some campers did get burned a little. Nico looked away from his cabin’s decorations and to the Big House on top of the hill. He noticed that it had been repainted since he had last been here. It was now a light lime green. Nico could see Chiron and Mr. D playing pinochle on the porch with a couple of satyrs lingering around.

Nico started walking towards the Big House, wondering why he had agreed to come back here in the first place. He had never really liked it here; that’s why he hadn’t been back in years. He’d hated it as a kid and he didn’t like it any more as an adult. The camp always reminded him that he didn’t really fit in with anyone, not even demigods. And it reminded him of Bianca. This was the last place he had seen her alive.

Nico stopped that train of thought before it could go any further. He still blamed himself for his sister’s death, even though he had only been 10 when it happened. He knew he couldn’t have done anything but that didn’t stop him from wishing he had done everything he could have to save her. Like following her on that damn quest instead of asking Percy to do it for him.

Nico looked around camp as he walked. Most of the campers he didn’t know. It was early October so school was in session and the only people at camp were the year-rounders. Nico hadn’t been around enough lately to recognize any of their faces, which he was a little thankful for. Not knowing anybody meant he didn’t have to stop to talk. He did wish Percy were here though. Or Annabeth. He hadn’t seen either them in a while but he knew they were busy with college. He thought about going to visit them after he finished with whatever he had to do here. Their apartment was pretty close – not that it mattered. He could shadow travel anywhere.

As Nico was walking, he noticed that a lot of the campers were staring at him. He didn’t think much of it because he wasn’t a familiar face but then he noticed that some of them, mostly the younger kids, were pointing at him and whispering as well. Nico sighed. It seemed that even though Nico didn’t know them, they knew him.

He probably should have expected the staring. Even if they didn’t know who he was, he still stood out. All the campers were wearing the bright orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt while he was wearing his usual dark colored clothing. He tried to ignore them but he couldn’t help noticing one girl as she turned to see who everybody was looking at. As he looked at her, he saw that she was more of a woman than she was a girl. A very beautiful woman at that. She seemed to be one of the oldest campers here – probably a couple years older than him. She had bright, curly red hair and clear, green eyes that almost seemed to shine. They reminded Nico of the grass in the strawberry fields during summer and something else. Her eyes almost seemed to glow the way Luke’s mothers had when she was having an episode, which was a disturbing thought. The red-haired woman seemed extremely familiar but he couldn’t place her face. Maybe Nico had a one night stand with her a while ago. He hoped that wasn’t it – talk about awkward. She studied Nico for a moment before turning away.

Nico realized he had stopped walking. He shook himself and began towards the Big House again. He reached the porch after a few minutes and walked up the stairs, which creaked under his boots. Chiron and Mr. D looked up from their pinochle game at the noise and Chiron grinned at him. He looked just like Nico remembered, with a scruffy brown beard, frayed tweed jacket, and warm, kind eyes.

“Nico!” Chiron said, “It’s good to see you, my boy. It’s been awhile.”

“Yeah it has,” Nico said.

“Not long enough,” Mr. D muttered to himself.

Nico looked over at him. He hadn’t changed either. He still wore those hideous tiger-patterned Hawaiian shirts, still had bloodshot eyes, and still looked at Nico with the loathing he felt for all campers.

“Mr. D,” Chiron chided, “Nico hasn’t been back at camp for years. Maybe you should give him a warmer welcome.”

“Bah. He doesn’t need a warm welcome, Chiron. He only came back because you asked him to,” Mr. D grumbled.

Chiron rolled his eyes. He turned towards Nico and regarded him warmly. “You have grown a lot since I last saw you, Nico. I swear you’re two feet taller.”

“Well, the last time you saw me, I was 16,” Nico replied, smirking a little.

Chiron chuckled, laying down a winning hand of cards. Mr. D glared at him and breathed out slowly. He stood up abruptly, snapping his fingers at the satyrs and walked into the Big House with the poor satyrs trotting behind him.

Chiron turned back to Nico, his brown eyes twinkling mischievously. “He can be such a sore loser sometimes. Why don’t we talk inside? I’m sure you want to know the reason I asked you here.”

With that, Chiron turned his wheelchair away from the table and rolled through the doorway to the Big House. Nico lingered for a moment, looking around the camp before following Chiron inside into the living room. Mr. D was playing the old Pac-Man machine in the corner of the room and the satyrs were peeling grapes for him. Nico always wondered why Chiron let Mr. D treat the satyrs like slaves, but he didn’t question it too much. Mr. D was a god after all. Nico still felt bad for them though. He couldn’t imagine the horrors that had to come with being Dionysus’s servant. 

Nico sat down on one of the leather couches that faced the fireplace, which at the moment was empty. Chiron poured them both lemonade before sitting back in his wheelchair. Mr. D’s machine made a noise that sounded like he had just lost which was confirmed a second later when he cursed violently in Ancient Greek and put in another drachma. Nico watched him curiously, wondering how he got the machine to accept the ancient currency.  

Nico took a sip of the lemonade and nearly spat it back out again as the stuffed leopards head above the fireplace suddenly snarled.

“Is that thing alive?” Nico questioned Chiron.

“Yes. That’s Seymour. Mr. D found him in a garage sale and decided that a life as a mounted head was better than being a stuffed animal,” Chiron answered as he rummaged around the side pockets of his wheelchair.

Nico was about to say that he thought being stuffed would have been better than being nothing more than a head when Mr. D started cursing again. Very creatively, too.

“Blast this confounded machine! I am never going to beat my high score!” He yelled at the screen, where the Pac- Man ghosts moved around in a way that almost looked gloating. Mr. D looked ready to pulverize the machine. Growling under his breath he jerked his hand at the satyrs. “Come on then. Might as well go to the meeting the elders decided to call. I swear if this is about that Grover again I am going to…” His voice trailed off as he stalked from the room, two very frightened satyrs in his wake.

“Is Grover ok?” Nico asked Chiron.

“Oh yes, he’s fine. He is out trying to preserve the last wild places. The council wants him to take on a protector’s job though. Go find some demigods that are in danger and get them to camp, that kind of thing. They keep asking Dionysus to step in, which is starting to get on his nerves, as you can see.”

“Yeah I noticed,” Nico muttered, as he watched Chiron. He has just found what he was looking for – a pack of what looked to be sausages. He took one out and threw it at the leopard head which caught and chewed it greedily.  Chiron set the packet of sausages on the table next to him and turned back to Nico seriously.

“There is a reason I asked you to come here Nico. A very serious one,” He stated.

“What is it?”

“A goddess has been kidnapped,” Chiron said gravely.

Nico frowned. It was hard to kidnap a goddess but it had been done. Artemis had been kidnapped once and Hera too. “Which goddess? One of the Olympians?”

“No, no, a minor goddess. Tyche, the goddess of luck. We don’t know why she was taken, or by whom. But we have had a prophecy about it. One that mentioned you.”

“Me?” Nico asked, shocked, “It mentioned me?”

“Well, not by name, per se, but it definitely mentioned you,” Chiron admitted.

“What was the prophecy exactly?” Nico asked warily. He had had experience with prophecies and they hardly ever forewarned anything to look forward to. Unless you looked forward to death and the end of the world.

“It was ‘ _The child of Fate and the son of Death, shall travel east with the lucky breath, find the lucky mother chained in earth, held by the one born a cursed birth, one shall perish or live forever, another shall lose a beloved tether_ ,’” Chiron recited.

“Well that sounds cheerful,” Nico said dryly.

“Indeed. You are of course the son of Death,” Chiron said, ignoring Nico when he rolled his eyes at him.

“Yeah, I got that. So who exactly is the child of Fate and the lucky breath?”

“Rachel Elizabeth Dare is obviously the child of Fate, as she is the Oracle. As for the lucky breath, I would wager a guess that it’s one of Tyche’s children at camp.”

Nico considered that for a moment. And then it clicked. The woman he saw outside had been Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Well shit. How had Nico not recognized her? Nico had known her when she was a lot younger, just before she became the Oracle. Nico remembered her as a quirky 14 year old with marker stains on her cheeks and frizzy red hair. She grew up a lot in the past decade, apparently.

“Isn’t it kinda dangerous to send the Oracle out on a quest? I mean…what if something happens to her? She is technically mortal after all,” Nico asked slowly, looking up at Chiron.

He chuckled. “Don’t let her hear you say that. She may be mortal, but she has been through as much training as any other demigod. And while normally I wouldn’t let her go out on a quest like this, she is dead set on doing it and she is going to find a way to go whether I allow it or not. And she also has an advantage in the situation. She is getting flashes of where Tyche is. It’s almost like Tyche is calling out to her.”

Nico nodded. It made sense to have her come along if she could find out where Tyche is being kept. “What about the other? Tyche’s kid I mean. I didn’t even know there were any at camp.”

“Yes, there are 5 currently at camp right now, and two others who are in college. I have contacted both who are in school. I thought you and Rachel might be more comfortable with someone closer to your own ages since you will be spending so much time together,” Chiron said.

Nico was thankful for that. Gods know he doesn’t want to spend who knows how long with a whiny preteen questioning his every move and annoying the shit out of him.

“Do I know either of them?” Nico questioned.

“No. Bryan, who is now 22, was at camp when you first came here, but I don’t think you would remember him. Diane came about 5 years ago. She is 23. Neither of them has replied to my message yet so I do not know if they will be able to come, but I think Diane will be able to. She never got to go on a quest while she was here and I think she has break coming up soon. She will be eager to come.”

Great. Nico would get to spend a couple weeks in the company of two older women who would probably treat him like a baby. Awesome.

“Alright, sounds fun,” Nico said, sounding a little sarcastic. “But there is one thing I still don’t get. Why Tyche? I mean she is a pretty minor goddess. Why would someone want to kidnap her? If whoever kidnapped her wanted to prove a point, why didn’t they go for Aphrodite or Demeter or one of the other major goddesses?”

“Like I said, we do not know. And I don’t think they weren’t  trying to prove a point. If they were, they would have tried for a major goddess. No, they kidnapped Tyche for a reason. I just don’t know what that reason is.”

“Oh, well that’s great. So we don’t have any clues or anything? We’re just completely in the dark about this? Do we even know where Tyche might be?”

“Rachel believes Tyche is being held in China. It will be hard to get there because you cannot shadow travel directly into the country,” Chiron told Nico.

Nico frowned. “Why can’t I shadow travel there? It wouldn’t be that hard, even if I had to take two other people with me.”

“It’s not that, Nico. You can’t shadow travel into China because the entire country is sealed off from entry like that. It has been sealed off from all types of godly communication,” Chiron told him gravely.

Nico stared at him. “How can someone block an entire _country_ from magical entry? Is that even possible?”

“Obviously, since it has been done. We found out when I tried to Iris-message a friend in Hong-Kong. Iris herself told me that the entire country was sealed; even she doesn’t know how it happened. Something very strong must have done it.”

“Great. That’s just great. How are we supposed to get there if I can’t shadow travel?”

“Well, I think you _can_ shadow travel to India. And from there it is only a matter of getting into China, finding Tyche, freeing her, and returning home safely.”

“Oh, well that sounds easy. When do we start?”

Chiron grinned. “I’ll let you know when I hear from Diane or Bryan. Now I think it might be good for you to go find Rachel and hash out a plan. You could probably find her at the stables.”

“Alright,” Nico stood up and walked out of the Big House but instead of going in the direction of the stables, he went back to his cabin.

When he walked in, he would have thought he was in the wrong place if he didn’t know any better. The obsidian walls had been polished and there wasn’t a speck of dust to be seen on the floor or any of the furniture. His skeleton cleaning ladies were standing at attention and after thoroughly checking over the cabin, he dismissed them. Then he sighed. He was probably going to be at camp for a while. He walked over to the bag he had left on his bed, which was now made nicely, and poked around the top, looking for his iPod. When he finally found the thing – at the very bottom of his bag – he laid down, put his music on shuffle, and closed his eyes.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare. He could remember her clearly now. He had met her when he was twelve and she was fourteen and, of course, he had developed a huge crush on her. Nico hadn’t talked to her much and what he had said, had made him sound like the biggest geek on the planet. Nico shook his head at the memory. He had had no idea how to talk to girls back then – he still didn’t sometimes, especially when it came to older women. Nico hoped Rachel had forgotten what exactly he had been like as a kid, because he didn’t think he would be able to survive this whole quest if she burst into laughter every time she remembered it. Nico was just lucky he had gotten over his crush. He had a feeling this quest was going to suck anyways and he saw no reason to add unrequited love to the equation.

Nico sensed someone at the door to his cabin and propped himself up on his elbows. It was Rachel, hovering at the threshold. And the second Nico saw her there he knew he was totally _fucking_ screwed. All the attraction he had felt for her as a kid came roaring back. Nico knew he was fooling himself if he thought he had gotten over that crush.

Up close, Nico could see that she was even more beautiful than he had thought when he saw her earlier. Her curly hair was a red as fire and her bright green eyes sparkled. Nico could hardly see any resemblance in the woman he was looking at and the girl he remembered. Sure, Rachel had been pretty then but now, now she was gorgeous.

Rachel continued to look at him, not saying anything while Nico stared at her, noticing the finer details of her appearance. She had full, soft pink lips, a dusting of freckles over the bridge of her nose and her cheekbones, and a slender figure that was still somehow curvy. She even managed to make her paint splattered camp shirt look good.

Nico decided that his staring was probably getting a little creepy so he sat up, pulling his headphones out as he did so. He looked back up at her and found that she was still looking at him. He blushed slightly, hoping she didn’t notice.

“You know, you don’t have to stand in the doorway,” he said, breaking the silence.

“I know. I was waiting for you to invite me in,” She answered, in a slightly husky voice that Nico found way more attractive than he should have.

“Maybe I shouldn’t. It’s against the rules for you to be here alone with me, you know,” Nico smirked.

“I don’t care,” Rachel said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, come on in, then. Welcome to my humble abode.”

Rachel walked in, looking around. “Humble? You call this humble? Is that a mini fridge?”

“Yes.”

“Something wrong with the food they serve here?” She joked.

“Who could live off of all that shitty healthy stuff? I need junk food.”

Rachel laughed. “Of course you do,” She paused, still taking in his cabin, “You know you’re lucky you can do whatever you want with this place. I’ve always felt kinda bad for the Hermes and Athena kids. They barely have any room for their beds.”

“One of the perks of being a kid of the Big Three, I guess.”

Rachel sat down on one of the couches. She was right. Nico had a lot more freedom with what he did with his cabin than most of the other campers. They all had a lot of siblings which meant more room needed for beds and more opinions on how the cabin should look and what should be in it. The Hermes cabin still had people sleeping on the floor and Nico had more room than he knew what to do with and nobody to tell him how to use it. He liked the freedom, but he did feel guilty when he thought about how cramped some of the other cabins were. He didn’t understand why Chiron didn’t have them rebuilt to be bigger, especially the Hermes and Athena cabins.

Rachel was still looking around his cabin. He didn’t have much in it, actually. He had a mini fridge in the corner, a couch, a coffee table, a TV mounted on the wall, a dresser, and a place to keep his weapons. The cabin had a very impersonal feel to it, much like the other cabins that were hardly ever used.

“Is it always so dark in here?” Rachel asked.

“Yeah. It won’t get much brighter than it is right now. Not unless I decided to add some extra lighting or something,” Nico answered. All the corners of his cabin were in shadow, but that was how he liked it.

“Huh. Why do you keep it so dark?”

"Easier to shadow travel when there are a lot of shadows nearby.”

“Shadow travel? Is that one of your freaky demigod powers?”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “’Freaky demigod powers?’” he repeated and Rachel stuck her tongue out at him.

“Yeah it’s one of my _freaky demigod powers._ Basically I can use the shadows to travel. Since they are all made out of the same stuff, if you know how to use them right, you can go anywhere in a few seconds,” Nico explained.

“Kinda like apprating in Harry Potter?”

Nico laughed. “Yeah, something like that.”

They fell silent and Rachel started staring at him again. It didn’t make him feel uncomfortable exactly, but it did make him feel a little weird. Rachel looked at him like someone would look when judging a painting – like they were looking for flaws. Nico looked around at anything but her and his gaze fell onto his bag which was still on his bed. He sighed and picked it up. He was going to be here a while and there was no need to live out of a suitcase. Nico walked over to his dresser and started putting his clothes in the drawers.

“So I guess you want to talk about this whole quest thing?” He asked Rachel without turning around.

“You’re gonna do it?” Rachel asked.

“Well, I don’t really see a choice in the matter. I mean, if we’re the only ones who can go save our goddess in distress, we had better go do it.”

“True. Did Chiron tell you the whole prophecy?”

“Yeah. All that stuff about cursed births, beloved tethers, and lucky breaths,” Nico said, folding his shirts.

“You make it sound so eloquent,” Rachel commented.

“I’m not here for eloquence. That’s your job,” Nico replied.

Rachel laughed. “I guess that is my job.”

Nico turned around a looked at her, leaving his half unpacked bag on top of his dresser. “So are you sure you’re up to this? This quest is gonna be pretty hard.”

Rachel scowled at him and Nico remembered what Chiron had said.  “Look just because I’m mortal doesn’t mean I’m weak. I’ve been through training, probably more than _you_ ever had and I know how to take care of myself. I’m not gonna be a liability throughout this whole thing. And besides, I _am_ the Oracle. I do have some protection even if I’m not half god.”

Nico held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, I wasn’t trying to say you’re weak. I remember when you nailed Kronos in the eye with that plastic hairbrush. I just know you haven’t really been on an official quest, especially one like this.”

Rachel’s glare softened, but she still looked pretty scary. Nico made a mental note to never use the words ‘weak’ and ‘Rachel’ in the same sentence.

Both Nico and Rachel looked in the direction of the mess hall when they heard the conch shell that signaled dinner sound. Rachel stood up and looked at Nico “See you later, then. Maybe tomorrow we can actually figure out a plan.” She didn’t wait for a response as she walked out the door.

Nico watched her walk away, trying to not stare at her ass. He sighed. This quest just got a lot harder than it had to be, and it was going to get worse if he didn’t get a grip on himself. He had talked to her for all of five minutes and she had already managed to get him to act like a horny twenty year old that got a hard-on every time he saw a pretty girl. He groaned and fell back onto his bed again, closing his eyes, and trying to banish thoughts of the beautiful Oracle out of his mind.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, I'm alternating between Nico and Rachel's point of view. Just so you guys know.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

* * *

Chapter Two:

 

Rachel leaned against the sun warmed obsidian walls of Nico’s cabin and breathed deeply. This quest just got a lot harder than it had to be. They already had to go rescue a goddess from gods know what and now Rachel had to do this without staring at her new, incredibly hot demigod companion the entire time. Completely unfair to her, to be forced to spend so much time with someone like him. She couldn’t do anything about it though; she couldn’t just go ask for another half-blood to accompany her.             

Rachel wondered what Apollo thought about all this. He hated it when she spent any amount of time with a guy. As the Oracle, she couldn’t hook up with any guys. Hell, she couldn’t even touch a man without Apollo swooping down on her like a jealous ex-boyfriend. He was probably having a hissy fit right now about her doing this quest with Nico. But Apollo couldn’t do anything about it either. If there hadn’t been a prophecy, he definitely would have tried to intervene, but Apollo knew he had to listen to the Oracle.

Rachel sighed and started towards the Big House. Since she technically wasn’t a camper, she wasn’t assigned to a cabin. Instead, Rachel stayed in one of the guest rooms whenever she was at camp. She liked having her own room. She had privacy, unlike most of the campers. The only drawback to staying in the Big House was sometimes she was woken up in the middle of the night by Mr. D’s snoring.

Rachel walked up the steps and went to her room. She pulled a chair in front of one of the blank canvases she had set up when she got here a week ago and put in her headphones. She always listened to music when she painted but she couldn’t just blast it through her speakers like she usually did because Chiron got mad.

Whenever Rachel needed to think she painted. The things she painted weren’t always as good as the things she drew when she was actually focused but it helped her to do something with her hands when she had a problem she needed to concentrate on. It kept her mind on her problem instead of her getting distracted every two minutes by something unimportant. And what she needed to think about needed her attention.   

Rachel needed to get over this thing she had for Nico. Rachel was sure the attraction was just because he was unavailable to her; maybe she would have felt the same way for any other attractive, single guy. She didn’t have any guy friends other than Percy so she couldn’t really test that theory. Rachel considered it. If she was only attracted to Nico because he was unavailable to her, then she should be able to get over it pretty fast. The attraction was only physical, nothing more.

And it wasn’t like she had never seen a hot guy before. Rachel had no idea why Nico had such an effect on her. She had never been ‘that girl’. She had never been so attracted to a guy she couldn’t focus on anything but the way his hair curled slightly behind his ears of how broad his shoulders were. But when she saw Nico, those things were all she could think about. Rachel had no idea what was wrong with her. There was nothing very appealing or endearing about his personality, as far as she could tell and that was always the thing she looked for in guys before she became the Oracle. So how had he gotten her to act like a twelve year old girl with a crush on her big brother’s hot friend?

Rachel rolled her eyes at herself. She was acting like a walking hormone. She had barely been able to keep her eyes off of him back at the cabin. That couldn’t continue. They had bigger problems to deal with than her having the hots for some guy she had just met. They had a freaking goddess to find and they hadn’t even found the third person for the quest. They were no help to Tyche if Rachel can’t keep her eyes off his ass every time his back is to her.

Next time Rachel saw Nico, she wasn’t going to let her hormones get in the way. They needed to figure out what was going on with the quest and what they were going to do about it. Just because Nico was hot didn’t mean she couldn’t do what needed to be done. She would get over it. Rachel suddenly had new respect for Annabeth. Rachel knew that Annabeth had had a crush on Percy for a really long time and she always managed to kick ass on quests. Rachel would do the same, no matter what feelings she might have toward Nico.

And besides, even if they didn’t have this stupid quest to do, Rachel still wouldn’t be able to do anything with Nico. In any situation she would have to get over it. And she would. Rachel wasn’t going to spend her time drooling over a guy she could never have. That wasn’t how she was.

Rachel stood up to get more paint and actually noticed what she was painting. She had started what looked a desert at night. It was different than what she normally drew, but Rachel liked it a lot. Satisfied that she had worked out her Nico problem as best she could right now, Rachel decided to focus on painting for a while. She wanted her desert scene to turn out well. Rachel raised her brush again and started painting in earnest.

When she was halfway done with her midnight desert scene, Rachel checked the time and saw that it was two a.m. She had been painting for hours. Rachel did that a lot. When she was really focused on painting, she would easily lose track of time. Usually she set alarms on her iPod so that she didn’t end up in front of an easel for twelve hours straight, but she had forgotten to this time.

Rachel stood up and stretched, her bones popping. She grabbed all her dirty brushes and put them in a cup of water and rinsed off all the paint, watching it swirl in the water. After she laid the brushes on a towel to dry, she yawned again and walked over to her dresser. She changed into her favorite pajamas and climbed into bed.

 

 The next morning Rachel set out to find Nico. She hadn’t seen him at breakfast or anywhere around camp all morning. Rachel walked up to the door to his cabin and knocked. No answer. Rachel knocked again and waited a moment before going in.

It was pitch black inside. She couldn’t see anything. Rachel felt along the wall for the light switch and flicked it on. She blinked at the sudden light, even though it wasn’t terribly bright inside and looked around. Rachel laughed at what she saw; Nico still asleep. No wonder she hadn’t seen him. Rachel walked over to him and looked down at his sleeping face. He looked a lot

Nico was lying on his stomach, using one of his arms as a pillow with his face turned towards her. Both of his feet were hanging off the bed. Rachel poked his blanket covered shoulder. When he didn’t respond, she poked him again; still nothing.

Rachel huffed, impatient. She shook his shoulder insistently and still got no response from him. How could he be this heavy of a sleeper? Demigods were supposed to be ready to fight monsters at any time, not ready to get eaten by one because they didn’t wake up.

“Nico, wake up!” Rachel said, shaking him again.

Nico’s eyes fluttered before opening. He looked around blearily before focusing on Rachel. He looked up at her, confused. “What’re you doing here?” He asked, his voice rough with sleep.

Rachel sat down on the couch she had occupied yesterday. “I have been looking for you all morning. Do you always sleep in this late?”

Nico rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?” he mumbled.

“11:30.”

Nico looked at her. “Why’d you get me up so early? I was having a good dream, y’know.”

“11:30 is early? Wow. You’re a pretty heavy sleeper, by the way,” Rachel commented.

“I only sleep heavy in an actual bed. If I’m doing something dangerous any little noise will wake me up.”

“Well, that’s good. It would suck if I had to fight a monster all by myself while you dreamed away,” Rachel said dryly.

“Ha ha. Why are you looking for me anyway?”

“We need to talk about the quest..." Rachel trailed off as Nico sat up.

Nico was, of course, shirtless. All her hard work at not staring at him and controlling herself flew out the window when she saw how muscular he was. For a guy who looked as skinny as Nico did, he had some serious muscles. Most demigods did, after all, with all the training and exercise they did, but Nico looked better than all of them. His muscles were lean and perfectly defined. Rachel liked shoulders and his were _amazing_. Even better, he didn’t have too much chest hair. Rachel didn’t like guys who walked around looking like they had a bush on their chest, but Nico had just enough hair to look masculine and hot as hell.

Nico seemed to not notice her staring. Rachel really hoped he hadn’t; she really didn’t want Nico to think she was perving on him. Rachel watched as Nico stretched, extending his arms above his head. As he did so, Rachel noticed the blanket had fallen into his lap, revealing the two lines of muscle on his torso that disappeared into the hem of his boxers. Rachel blushed as she found herself wondering what the rest of him looked like.

She looked away, trying to control her thoughts and cool down. She really needed to get a grip on herself. Rachel knew herself enough to know that soon she would get over this crush if she really tried to. She always got over her crushes when she was younger. Whenever she was obsessed with a new hot celebrity, after a few days she was over it. With luck, the same thing would happen with Nico.

Nico interrupted her thoughts. “What about the quest?”

Rachel looked back over him, just in time to see him run a hand through his thick black hair, making his bed head look even sexier. She forced herself to focus on his face. “Well, everything, I guess. We hardly know anything and we should at least try to come up with a plan. Put some clothes on and meet me in the strawberry fields. Maybe we can figure something out.”

“Why can’t we just talk here?” Nico questioned.

“One, you’re half naked. Two, it is gloomy in here and I miss the sun.”

“What, you don’t like the décor?” He smirked.

Rachel stood up, rolling her eyes. “Just put some pants on,” She said as she walked out the door.

As Rachel walked towards the fields, she thought about how impossible this quest really was going to be. They had no idea who kidnapped Tyche, they only knew the country she was in, which also happened to be one of the largest in the world, and they had no way to even get into the country or actually find the goddess. And they would probably have to try and defeat whatever took her in the first place, which would be near impossible as well. Two demigods and the Oracle against something strong enough to kidnap a goddess and find a way to block an entire country from magical everything? They had next to no chance.

Rachel’s pessimistic thoughts were driven out when she crested the top of the hill where the strawberry fields began. Nico was

Rachel walked up to him. “How did you beat me here?” She asked.

“Shadow travel,” Nico answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Rachel frowned. It was sunny outside. “I thought you need shadows to do that?

“There are shadows everywhere.”

Rachel narrowed her eyes at him. She didn’t like his superior, ‘you simple mortal’ tone. Rachel hated it when people used that tone. It annoyed the shit out of her when people acted like she knew nothing about the immortal world when she knew more about it than most of the campers. Not knowing every little thing about the gods didn’t make her completely ignorant.

Rachel walked past Nico, heading towards the edge of the field. There was a clear patch of grass there where they could talk. Nico caught up to her and they walked together in silence for a couple minutes.

Nico broke the silence first. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere we can talk without being bothered,” Rachel answered.

“Who would bother us?”

“Some of the campers like to ask me questions to get a prophecy. Just about stupid things like answers to a test. It’s really annoying.”

“Does the Oracle actually give prophecies about stuff like that?” Nico asked curiously.

“Sometimes. One time is college someone asked me a question about what they thought our homework was going to be and I gave a full prophecy about it. Mr. D had to wipe her memory. I felt really bad for her. It really freaked her out.”

“I’m pretty sure green smoke pouring from your mouth and a voice in their head would freak anybody out. ’Specially if they didn’t know you’re the Oracle.”

Rachel rolled her eyes at him. They had reached her little patch of grass. Since it was October, most of it was brownish and dry. In the summer it was practically a garden, with colorful flowers and everything. Rachel sat down, crossed legged and Nico plopped down next to her.

“So, first things first, I think we should try and figure out how we’re actually going to get to China.”

“Easy. I shadow travel us to India and then we cross the border into China.”

“Wow, thank you Nico. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Nico looked at her. “It’s not going to be that hard to get in the country.”

“I don’t think so. China probably has some really good border patrol. And how are we even going to find our way to the border? Neither of us can speak Hindi. Or Chinese, for that matter.”

way to the Nico lay down on the ground, squinting up at her.

Nico lay down on the ground, squinting up at her.“We’ll make do. Maybe Tyche’s kid can give us some luck,” He said with a lopsided smile.

“I don’t think that’s actually how it works, Nico,” Rachel said, trying to ignore the way that smile made her stomach flip.

“You never know, Dare. Maybe with them around, we’ll actually have a bit of luck. Gods know we’ll need it. Can we do this over breakfast, though? I’m starving.”

“It’s your own fault for sleeping late.”

“I would’ve gotten some food if you hadn’t barged into my cabin and practically thrown me off my bed.”

“I did not throw you off your bed,” Rachel scoffed, “and you didn’t answer the door.”

“So you just walked in? No manners.”

“Whatever, Death Breath. Let’s just figure out what we’re going to do with this stupid quest.”

“What did you just call me, Dare?” Nico asked indignantly.

 

“Focus, Nico,” Rachel smirked, kicking him in the shin.

* * *

 

An hour later, Rachel was ready to strangle Nico. They had barely gotten anything planned out because everything she said, he immediately disagreed with. So far all they had agreed on was that this quest sucked and that they had no idea what they were going to do. Nico firmly believed that the best course of action was just to go in and see what happened while Rachel wanted to have at least some kind of plan and not just walk into China with no idea what they were doing. It was like Nico was being annoying on purpose. He just lay there, sprawled out, and shot down any idea she had while supplying hardly any ideas of his own.

“So how do you expect us to find Tyche?”

“Well maybe you could supply us with some direction, Ms. Oracle of Delphi.”

“I can’t just call on Delphi whenever I feel like it. It doesn’t work like that.”

“Well maybe when we get there, you’ll start getting flashes or something. Maybe Tyche will sense you and call out for help.”

“And what if she doesn’t?”

“Then we’ll just stumble around blindly until we find her.”

“Nico, this is serious! We need a plan.”

“Look, Dare. Even if we did have a plan, it would be fucked the second we step foot in China. Nothing about this will go according to any plan. I know that from experience.”

Rachel sighed, rubbing her temples. “I just don’t like the idea of going in blind.”

“Well, we don’t really have any other options. We’re not gonna figure out who took her or where she is. Kinda the point of kidnapping her.”

“I understand the point of kidnapping, Nico, thank you.”

“Any time, Dare.”

Rachel glared at him.  His casual attitude towards this whole thing was really getting on her nerves. This quest was serious and he was acting like it was going to be a piece of cake. Rachel just hoped that his attitude towards it would change when they were actually on the quest.

“Seriously Rachel, don’t worry. We can only do so much and there’s no point worrying about what we don’t know,” Nico said, in what was probably meant to be a placating tone.

“Well how are we going to find Tyche if we don’t know anything?” Rachel asked.

“Scared, Dare?” Nico smirked at her. Rachel balled her hands into fists and tried to fight her growing anger and irritation.

“No, I am not scared, _di Angelo_. I just want to do this quest right.”

“We can only do what we can. And we’ll do our best. Stop freaking out about it. I know it’s your first quest and all, but you need to lighten up.”

“Don’t tell me to lighten up, asshole. I just don’t want to be careless. Like you seem to be,” Rachel said, scowling at him. She hated how he kept bringing up that she hadn’t actually been on a quest before. What happened to him remembering when she hit Kronos in the eye with a hairbrush? Rachel may not have been on an official quest before, but she knew what they had to do. She just didn’t know how exactly they were going to do it.

Nico sat up and glared at Rachel. “I am not careless. I’m just not uptight and scared like you.”  

Rachel stood up and Nico followed suit. She had to fight down the urge to punch him in his handsome face. “I am not scared, Nico! Don’t assume I am afraid because I don’t want to go waltzing into a foreign country with next to no information! I am not scared of trying to find Tyche, I just don’t want to get there and end up having to scour the entire country for just a hint of where she is!”

“Well, you seem pretty afraid to me. I know what I’m doing here. And I know that freaking out about the quest is only going to make it worse, so stop trying to come up with a plan when we _can’t_. We don’t have enough information and _making a plan_ and whining isn’t going to change that. “

Rachel opened her mouth to say something, or more likely, cuss him out, but before she could say anything, Nico was already walking away. Rachel stood, fuming. He was so infuriating! If they couldn’t have a simple discussion about this awful quest without wanting to throttle each other how were they supposed to actually do the quest?

Rachel rubbed her face with her hands and sat back down on the scratchy grass. Why couldn’t Percy be the one who was chosen for this stupid quest? He would have taken it seriously and tried to figure something out. They wouldn’t have ended up snapping at each other. And how did that even happen? They talked yesterday and were fine. Granted, they only talked for about ten minutes, but still.  If they kept fighting like they just did, Rachel didn’t think she would ever be able to work with Nico. Especially if he didn’t stop belittling her.  

Why did he think she was so afraid? Did he really think she was that weak? Rachel may not want to go on this quest and she knew it was going to be dangerous and hard, but she wasn’t afraid. She was worried about it, of course. There was a good chance someone would die, or all of them. Rachel just wasn’t scared.

Rachel lay down and threw her arm over her eyes to block out the sun. Why did this quest have to be so much more difficult than need be? It would be hard enough without Nico annoying the shit out of her. They were going to have to find a way to get along, at least enough to work together on this quest. And she still had that little crush to worry about.

Rachel continued to lie on the ground, absently fiddling with the grass until she became aware of a change in the light. She moved her arm away from her eyes and saw that clouds were rolling in around the protective weather bubble that surrounded Camp Half-Blood, making the sky gray and gloomy. It looked like it was going to rain soon. Not that it really mattered; no raindrops would touch the camp grounds.

Rachel stood up, brushing the dead grass out of her curly hair and walked out of the strawberry fields. The gloomy weather reminded her of her half-finished desert scene and she was in the mood to paint. Hopefully painting would get her mind off of her anger with Nico.

On her way to the Big House, Rachel was stopped by a satyr. He was one of the younger ones who hadn’t been sent out on an assignment yet.

“Hey Banner. What’s up?” Rachel asked him.

“Chiron is looking for you and Nico. He told me to go and find you two. He said it was about the quest,” Banner explained

“Oh. Have you been looking long?”

“A couple minutes. But now that I found you, let’s go find Nico. Do you think he’s in his cabin? I haven’t looked over there yet.”

“Probably. I don’t think he would be anywhere else.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t socialize much, does he?” Banner said as they started walking towards Nico’s cabin.

“No, he doesn’t,” Rachel muttered.

“Well, he’s always been like that. Ever since his sister died,” Banner told her.

Rachel frowned. Chiron had told her Nico’s story. She found very interesting but equally sad. Rachel felt bad for Nico. He lost so much of his family when he was so young. But Rachel would never tell Nico about her sympathy for him. She knew that he would probably misinterpret sympathy as pity and something told her that he didn’t take to well to pity.

When they got to the door of Nico’s cabin Banner stopped. Rachel looked at him curiously.

“What’s wrong?” She asked him.

“I don’t want to go in. It smells like death in there,” Banner told her, sounding uneasy.

“What?” Rachel asked incredulously, “What do you mean it smells like death?”

“All demigods have a smell to them that satyrs and some other creatures can smell. It has to do with a half-blood’s godly parent. I smell like death, which they tend to not like,” Nico explained, appearing out of thin air right behind Rachel and causing her to jump about a foot in the air.

Rachel whirled around to face him. “Nico! _Do not do that!_ Are you trying to kill me?!” Rachel hissed at him, trying to control her heart rate.

“No. But that would make my life a little better,” He said, giving her that damn smirk again.

Rachel was about to smack the self-satisfied look off his face when Banner stepped between them. He probably noticed Rachel’s desire to cause Nico physical harm.

“Chiron wants to see you and Rachel. He sent me to get you two,” Banner told Nico quickly.

“Fine. Let me just put away some things,” Nico said as he walked inside his cabin.

Rachel hesitated a moment before following him inside. “Where did you go?” She asked him as he pulled some things out of a worn backpack. He didn’t seem upset about their fight from earlier. Rachel glanced down the stuff he had unpacked onto his bed and saw books, a leather jacket, and a couple of mortal knives. She wondered what it was all for.

“Manhattan. I needed to get some stuff.”

“Aren’t we supposed to stay at camp unless Mr. D tells us we can leave?”

“I think that only applies to the campers who stay here year round or over the summer. And besides, he wouldn’t have even noticed I was gone. He never has before,” Nico told her.

Rachel watched him curiously as he started pulling clothes out of his backpack and put them in his dresser. She was still a little angry with him, but at least they were acting civilly towards each other. Maybe they could work together on this quest – if they were both able to keep their tempers in check.

Nico walked over to his mini fridge and pulled a case of beer from his bag.  

“I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to have that,” Rachel commented.

“What Chiron doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“You’re underage. Not only is that against camp rules, but it’s against the law,” Rachel said, amused.

“Whatever. A lot of the things I do are against the law,” Nico said.

“I don’t doubt that,” Rachel muttered.

Nico scowled at her. “What is that supposed to mean?” He demanded.

“Nothing,” Rachel said innocently, “I didn’t mean anything. Are you done?”

“Yeah. Let’s go see what Chiron wants with us. Hopefully it’s good news.”

Rachel followed him out of the cabin and they started walking toward the Big House in silence. Rachel was surprised. A couple hours ago they had been fighting and now they were talking like they had been yesterday. They were so hot and cold. Rachel hoped she had just overreacted about their argument and that it wouldn’t actually end up as bad as she previously thought. Maybe he had just been so difficult earlier because he hadn’t had breakfast or something.

And Rachel was surprised at herself. She wasn’t really mad at Nico anymore, which was strange. She usually held onto to anger like a lifeline but right now all she felt was annoyance with him instead of real anger. Interesting.

They found Chiron sitting alone at the table on the porch of the Big House. Rachel sat down in the chair across from him and Nico leaned against the porch railing.

“So, what’s the good news?” Nico asked Chiron.

“I have gotten an answer from Diane,” Chiron told them, “She accepted the quest and will be here soon.”

“That’s great,” Rachel said.

“Do you know her?” Nico asked Rachel.

“Yeah. She’s my friend. She’s really nice…but a little eccentric,” Rachel answered, smiling to herself.

Chiron smiled at her knowingly. “And she can speak Mandarin, so you’re in luck. Easier to make a plan of action when someone can speak the native language of the country you’re going to.”

Rachel smirked at Nico when he mentioned a plan and got a scowl in return. “So when are we leaving then?” She asked Chiron.

“In a couple days, I should think. That will give you time to talk things over with Diane and figure out what you’re going to do and get packed for the trip.”

“Awesome,” Nico said, “it’s vacation time.”

“Nico, be serious,” Chiron told him sternly while Rachel smiled at him for being admonished, earning another scowl. “Rachel, have you gotten your swords back yet?” Chiron asked her.

“No, I didn’t know they had been fixed.”

“Yes, they were finished yesterday. I think Harley has them. He is at the armory right now,” Chiron told her, “And while I’m on the topic, I want both of you – and Diane included when she gets here – to brush up on your training. I know all of you have been out of practice.”

Rachel promised him she would and started towards the armory. Her two Trojan swords had been broken about a month ago when she was ambushed by some storm spirits. The damn things had electrocuted her blades and caused them to malfunction. Somehow they messed up the magic in them so the blades wouldn’t convert back into their sheathes. The storm spirits burned her hands pretty badly too. Rachel hadn’t been able to paint for a week.

She had given the swords to the Hephaestus kids to fix. Apparently they were pretty messed up if it took them a month to fix the swords. It would have probably been easier to find some new blades but Rachel liked her Trojan swords. They were concealed as gold bangles when she wasn’t using them, the same way Thalia’s magic shield was concealed as chains.

Rachel was conscious of Nico following her and she slowed down so he could catch up. When he fell into step with her, she raised an eyebrow at him.

“I need to get a knife,” he explained.

“Why?”

“I can’t use my sword all the time.”

“Oh,” Rachel looked down at the sword on his hip. She couldn’t tell what it was made out of. “What kind of sword do you have?”

He glanced down at his sword. “It’s made out of Stygian Iron. The iron is mined and forged in the Underworld and cooled in the Styx. They’re pretty rare.”

“Sounds like a fun sword.”

Nico smirked at her. Rachel was starting to believe he only had two facial expressions: scowl and smirk. Rachel couldn’t figure out what was going on between them. An hour ago she was sure she hated this guy and now she was talking to him like they were friends. What was going on with her?

They reached the armory after a few minutes of silence and spent several minutes trying to find Harley. They found him at the very back surrounded by broken weapons and hunks of metal, working on what looked like a ball of wires to Rachel.

“Hey Harley,” Rachel said when he reached for a tool. She didn’t want to distract him with his hands all over something that was most likely dangerous.

He jumped and spun around to face them. He pushed his goggles up into his curly hair and grinned. “Hey guys. What’s up?”

Harley had been at camp since he was eight. He grew up around the forges and weapons and it showed. He spent most of his time in the armory fixing weapons or building things. You could ask him for any kind of weapon and he would make it for you without even seeming to break a sweat, which most campers took advantage of. Not that Harley minded; he loved messing around with anything that was metal or covered in grease.

“I heard my swords were fixed,” Rachel told him.

“Oh, yeah, I have them right over here…” Harley said as he started rummaging around his little workspace, “Ok…here they are! They’re hard to find when they’re disguised.”

“Yeah they are,” Rachel said as she accepted the two bracelets from Harley. She put them on and stepped back a little and flicked her wrists. Immediately, two Trojan swords sprung into her hands, with thick gold bands wrapped around each of her wrists. Rachel examined them happily. Each was a little longer than her forearm and shaped like a traditional Trojan sword. They had short handles and gold blades. The blades themselves were broad at the bottom and then narrowed sharply and broadening again slightly before tapering to a point. Rachel loved these blades because not only were they deadly, they were also decorative. Each blade had an intricate pattern at the broad bottom.

After looking them over to make sure they were perfect, Rachel flicked her wrists again and the swords shrunk back into bracelet form. She looked up and found Nico looking at her strangely.

“What?” She asked him, expecting him to say something about her not being able to handle her weapons.

“Nothing,” Nico shrugged, “Where’d you get those from?”

“Apollo gave them to me when I started training. He said that it would be a good idea to have some weapons that could be easily concealed in case I needed them in the mortal world.”

“Smart,” Nico said before turning towards Harley. “You got any knives around here?” He asked.

“Are you kidding? Sure. What kind do you want?”

“Just a regular old knife. Something I can hide up my sleeve.”

“Alright, come with me,” Harley said as he led Nico into another part of the armory. Rachel walked out of the armory and in the direction of the Arena. Now that she had her swords back, she wanted to play with them. Chiron was right. She was definitely out of practice and needed to brush up. She had been without her swords for almost a month. When Rachel got to the Arena she pulled out a couple of the dummies used for sword practice and started hacking away at them with the intent of training until dinner.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

* * *

 

Chapter Three:

 

Two days later, they were almost ready to leave for the quest. Nico was not excited about it. The past two days at camp had basically been made up of Nico training when he really didn’t need to, fighting with Rachel and then avoiding her, and trying not to strangle Diane.

To be honest, Diane was someone Nico would usually avoid. She could barely reach his shoulder but her attitude was one of someone a lot bigger than her. The first thing Diane said to Nico was “Are you sure you’re up to this quest? You’re so little.” And after that, his encounters with her were just made up of Diane telling him how “tiny” or “little” he was or merciless teasing. Both annoyed Nico endlessly.

Rachel could be almost as bad as Diane when it came to irritating Nico. They fought all the time and about the smallest things. And even weirder, an hour after they had a fight, they were fine. If they ran into each other after a big fallout, they acted like they were friends. And then an hour after that, they were back at each other’s throats. Nico really didn’t understand their relationship. At least with Diane, Nico could figure her out. He knew that Diane liked him fine, she just chose to tease him and annoy him like Bianca used to when he was little.

Nico liked Diane, even though she annoyed the shit out of him. When he first met her, she seemed like someone who acted a lot stronger than they actually were. Diane was short, had white-blond hair styled in a pixie haircut, and had multiple piercings. Nico mistakenly thought that she acted a lot tougher than she actually was, so when she had told him she could take him down, he took that as a challenge thinking he would teach her a lesson. They fought and she practically kicked his ass into next week, much to the amusement of the other campers. Even better, Clarisse had dropped by and saw the whole thing. Nico was also pretty sure Rachel had filmed the whole thing. He was never going to live it down. His only hope to regain his dignity was to complete this impossible quest.

They were leaving tomorrow morning to go China. Unfortunately, Chiron found out some more information for them and discovered that they couldn’t shadow travel to India either, which sucked. But Chiron had pulled through for them. He had somehow booked them a plane to China and Diane had gotten them fake IDs and passports, though she wouldn’t tell anybody how she got them. Chiron seriously disapproved of the illegal documents but he had to admit it was all they could do in such short notice.

Nico should be sleeping, but instead he was heading to the arena to train – again. He was doing it more out of boredom than anything else. There was nothing really to do at camp besides train and he preferred to train alone, which is why he was going to the Arena at 10:00 at night, when all of the campers were asleep. Luckily for him the arena was always lighted.

When he got there, he saw that he was not the only one to have this idea. Rachel was in the middle of the arena hacking away at two practice dummies with her wicked looking swords. Nico watched her for a bit. Even though she annoyed the shit out of him sometimes, he still was attracted to her, which he didn’t understand at all.  He had a better hold on himself though – meaning he didn’t stare at her ass or wonder what she looked like naked every time he saw her.

He didn’t really have to wonder right now. Rachel’s outfit left little to the imagination. She was wearing only a hot pink sports bra and shorts that should be made illegal. Nico noticed what looked like a shirt lying on top of her bag and wished she was still wearing it. Nico couldn’t help but stare at her. Everything about her right now appealed to him, from the graceful way she moved to the way the strands of hair that had escaped from her high ponytail stuck to the back of her neck. Nico sighed to himself. There was no way he was going to get over this stupid crush. And he didn’t even understand it. Usually when he met a hot girl and she didn’t have a personality that Nico liked, Nico got over her. But not with Rachel. Even though she irritated him out of him mind half of the time they were together, he still liked her. Maybe it was because he did sometimes enjoy being around her – when they weren’t about to start WWIII.

Nico knew he didn’t do anything to help with the fighting. He had a temper and he knew it. Whenever Rachel started to do something annoying or said something that made him upset, he got angry with her and lashed out. In a way, it was him who started the fighting. Rachel only started getting nasty after he did. Nico sometimes felt bad about their fights because he knew they were his fault even if Rachel started them. She just started them without meaning to.

Nico was just glad the fighting hadn’t gotten too bad. Whenever they got mad at each other it was over stupid things. Their fights hadn’t descended to a level that would end up with her kicking him in the balls or him wanting to punch a wall and Nico was trying to keep it that way. He wasn’t sure what they would do if it got that bad. And he had a feeling that Rachel was more than capable of and would have no problem with kicking his ass.

Nico sat down on one of the stone bleachers and continued to watch Rachel practice. She was good. Nico almost felt bad for the poor training dummies she was working on. Rachel had practically reduced them to piles of straw with those wicked blades of hers. Rachel was right when she had told Nico that she could take care of herself.

Nico sat on the bleachers for some time, switching between admiring Rachel’s fighting skills and practically drooling over her body. Nico wished she wasn’t so beautiful. He was first and foremost a horny twenty year old boy and it really wasn’t fair for him to be forced to spend time with someone who looked like Rachel and was as unavailable as she was. Nico knew that if she wasn’t totally off limits he probably would be trying to sleep with her. And he also had to admit that he would have probably failed at that; Rachel didn’t seem like the type to have one night stands, especially with guys she thought were dicks.

Rachel stepped away from the dummies and flicked her wrists so that her swords retracted. Nico was a little jealous of those swords. His didn’t have any kind of cool disguise like hers. Nico had to hide his the old fashioned way which was a pain in the ass sometimes. Like when he was trying to get on an airplane. The Stygian iron didn’t set off metal detectors but it was still visible went it went through an x-ray. He had to be very careful when trying to sneak it past security. Nico was honestly surprised he hadn’t been caught with it before but he was sure his luck would run out. And knowing his lucky streak, it would probably be tomorrow when he tried to board the plane to China.

Nico watched Rachel head to the area where the training dummies were kept. He stood up and followed, wondering if he could scare her. Nico always had fun doing that. Her reactions were always hilarious.

“Need some help?” Nico asked when he had snuck up right behind her.

Rachel jumped and whirled around, dropping the dummy she had half-picked up. When she saw that it was Nico, she put her hands on her hips and gave Nico what he liked to call her “fuck off and die” expression.

“Nico, does it give you some sort of sick pleasure to try and stop my heart?” she demanded.

“It does amuse me,” he said, grinning.

“Will it amuse you when I drop dead at thirty?” Rachel grumbled as she bent back down to her dropped dummy, giving Nico an amazing view of her cleavage. Nico turned away and grabbed two other dummies so he wouldn’t stare. Nico really wished he hadn’t seen that. He had been doing pretty well with his whole self-control thing and that outfit of hers was just destroying it. Nico really hoped Rachel didn’t notice the small tent in his gym shorts. He really didn’t need her seeing his slight erection. He didn’t want her to think he was just some horny little pervert who drooled over her whenever he got the chance.

To give him something to do and a moment away from Rachel, Nico dragged his dummies to the middle of the arena where Rachel had been practicing. He was trying to think of anything that would get him down with little success. Nico needed to get a grip on himself. He had gotten a boner from looking at her cleavage for gods’ sake.

Nico set up his dummies and started slicing and stabbing at them with his short, black sword. After several minutes of this, with him focusing only on what he was doing to the dummies, he was happy to notice that his erection had gone down. Apparently, sword practice and straw dummies were a good way for Nico to control his dick.

Nico realized that Rachel was watching him practice from the stone bleachers where he had been sitting. “What?” he asked her.

“Nothing,” she said, “just wondering what those poor dummies did to you.”

Nico smirked as he lopped the head off on of his dummies. “Probably the same thing those did to you,” he said as he pointed to the two lumps of straw next to him.

Rachel laughed and walked over to her bag. She rummaged around it for a moment before taking out a water bottle and picking up her shirt. As she walked back to the bleachers Rachel pulled the thin material over her head, much to Nico’s relief. It was definitely easier to focus on her face and what she was saying when she wasn’t half-naked.

“Excited about tomorrow?” Rachel asked him while he chopped the arms off his beheaded training dummy.

“Extremely. I always look forward to being stuck in a flying metal container for twelve hours on my way to go rescue some goddess.”

Nico could see Rachel grin at him. “What, you don’t like flying?”

“I always worry that Zeus is gonna blast me out of the air.”

“I wouldn’t have pegged you as one to be afraid of flying,” Rachel told him, sounding far too amused.

Nico threw a scowl at her before stabbing one of the dummies where its stomach would be. “I’m not afraid of the flying. Just the possibility of being blown out of the sky by a paranoid god,” Nico muttered defensively.

“Sure, Nico, whatever you say.”

Nico decided to ignore that and went to get some more dummies to kill. When he got three more in the center of the arena, he sheathed his sword and pulled out his new knife. Nico was more comfortable with fighting with a sword but he figured it was a good idea to be able to hold his own with a knife too.

 While Nico practiced, Rachel sat on the bleachers and watched, commenting occasionally. It was times like this when Nico realized how much he actually did enjoy spending time with Rachel. When they weren’t at each other’s throats Rachel was pretty easy to talk to.

Nico knew that Rachel was trying to make an effort to stop fighting with him. He also knew that he said a lot of things that he really shouldn’t, but he never really thought before talking. It was only really after he said something stupid that he realized he probably shouldn’t have even opened his mouth. And then his pride kept him from apologizing. Maybe if Nico actually tried to stay on good terms with Rachel they could become friends. Nico would like to be friends with Rachel. After all, they got along fine when Nico wasn’t acting like an asshole – which, he had to admit, was often.

Nico stepped away from the dummies that he had been attacking and wiped the sweat off his face with the bottom of his shirt. He put his knife away and walked over to where Rachel was sitting and collapsed next to her. Nico had been training for a while and was tired. Rachel offered him her almost full water bottle which Nico gratefully took. He always forgot to bring water when he practiced.

After gulping down half of the bottle, Nico handed it back to Rachel and thanked her. They sat in silence for a while Nico glanced at her every now and again. She just sat there, looking down at her bottle which she turned this way and that so that the water moved around. Nico could see her pink sports bra through her thin shirt and strands of her hair still stuck to the back of her neck.

Nico couldn’t help but wonder why Rachel decided to be the Oracle. It had been bugging him for a while. Rachel just didn’t seem the type to give her entire life to something when she didn’t have to. There were other girls in the world capable of hosting the Spirit of Delphi.

Nico turned towards Rachel. “Why did you choose to become the Oracle?”

Rachel looked surprised at his random question. She tilted her head while she considered it. “I don’t know really. I knew that I could be the Oracle, so I did. I’ve never really thought about why I did. Maybe I chose to be the Oracle because I knew that I could do something important with my life that way.”

Nico considered that. “Do you ever regret it?” he asked curiously.

“No,” Rachel shook her head,” I don’t. But sometimes I do wish the Oracle didn’t require so many things from me. And that she wouldn’t possess me when I’m trying to do something important.”

“I thought she just came out when she needed to deliver a prophecy.”

“Usually she does. But sometimes she takes control of my body. Like if she needs to figure something out or do something important,” Rachel told him.

“What does that feel like?” Nico asked. He had never been possessed by anything and he was grateful for it. It didn’t sound like a fun experience.

“It feels like I’m sleeping. I usually don’t even realize that she has possessed me until I wake up. And she never does it for too long. Only like a couple hours and usually late at night when I’m not doing anything,” Rachel explained.

“Considerate of her,” Nico remarked dryly.

“Well, she could walk around in my body all day and freak people out with the glowing eyes.”

Nico chuckled. “That would be pretty funny to watch.”

Rachel smacked his bicep. “It would not be! There’s nothing funny about seeing people be scarred for life.”

“Oh, come on. You’re not _that_ scary. Well usually. I was a little scarred after seeing you after you had just woken up yesterday morning.”

Nico laughed as Rachel punched him again. “You are such an asshole,” she grumbled.

“Yeah, I know. I try not to be, but it just comes out sometimes.”

“Maybe you should work on that,” Rachel rolled her eyes at him.

“I am. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we can go this whole quest without you or Diane wanting to cut my tongue out,” Nico said, only half-joking.

“I doubt that,” Rachel said, smiling a little.

Nico smirked at her and leaned back against the stone. It must be pretty late if he was this tired. “What time is it?” he asked Rachel.

Rachel pulled out her phone and raised her eyebrows at the time. “2 in the morning,” she told him.

Nico groaned. It was going to be awful getting up in the morning. He stood up and rubbed his face. “I had better go to bed then. See ya in a couple hours I guess,” he said to Rachel.

“Goodnight,” Rachel chuckled before he walked away.

* * *

 

Nico was standing in his father’s throne room. He sighed. Nico didn’t like it when his father decided to talk to him while he slept; he always managed to do it when Nico was having a good dream. But Nico supposed this way of communication was better than Hades popping up with no warning. Hades had a habit of dropping by at the most inopportune times. He had caught Nico having sex twice and one time found him getting a blowjob. Nico would have thought that after his father had caught him with a girl the first time he would have learned to knock or at least look before appearing out of thin air.

Hades appeared on his throne with one leg kicked over the armrest. He was wearing his usual robes filled with the faces of the damned. Nico felt seriously sorry for those souls. Even he didn’t know what kind of things you had to do to be made in Hades’ clothes.

Nico looked up at his father’s face. “What?” he asked, trying not to sound too annoyed with being summoned.

Hades glared at him. “Watch your tone, boy.”

“I was having a good dream.”

“I don’t care. I need to talk to you and I am tired of going to talk to you and finding you…occupied.”

“That wouldn’t happen if you would just look and see what I was doing before barging in,” Nico grumbled.

“Nevertheless, I am going to communicate with you this way. Seeing that girl preform fellatio on you was extremely disturbing. I would like to not see that again,” Hades said causing Nico grimaced. That was a day he preferred to not talk about.

“Did you really summon me here to talk about this?” Nico grumbled.

“No. I did not,” Hades told him. He stood up and shrunk to a normal size in front of Nico. Nico took a step back so he didn’t have to crane his neck to look his father in the eyes. Nico was tall but Hades liked to be even bigger.

“Then what do you need me for?”

“There are two things. The first is advice. This quest you’re going on, how much do you know?”

“Almost nothing. We know Tyche is in China and that I can’t shadow travel there,” Nico told him.

“I can see you did your research,” Hades said dryly.

Nico scowled. “I’m not an all-knowing god like you. I can only figure out so much.”

“That is true. And that is also why I am going to help you,” Hades told him.

Nico raised an eyebrow. His father wasn’t one to help Nico with anything. He usually just watched what Nico did and told him what he should have done afterwards. “You’re going to help me? Why?”

“Because we need Tyche back. Or the Olympians do. Personally, I am glad she is gone. She can be quite the annoyance if you upset her, with her bad luck curses and such. But apparently Tyche is important to my brothers and she needs to be returned to Olympus.”

“So what do you know?” Nico asked impatiently.

“I believe I told you to watch your tone, boy,” Hades glared at him before continuing, “Tyche is being held in the Gobi Desert of China.”

Nico waited a second for him to say more. “That’s it? That’s all you know?” he asked incredulously when Hades didn’t go on. His dad summoned him here to tell him that Tyche was being held in the desert?

Hades eyes narrowed. “Don’t be ungrateful, boy. Without you knowing where she is, you would have probably never found Tyche. And we don’t have time for you to blunder around China trying to find her. I suggest you thank me for telling you where she is being held.”

Nico glowered at his father. “Thank you,” he muttered. Nico hated to admit it, but Hades was right. They could have spent who knows how long trying to find Tyche. At least now they knew where to look. It would still take a long time though. The Gobi Desert wasn’t exactly small.

“You said you had two things,” Nico prompted when Hades stayed silent.

“Yes. I also have a gift for you.”

Nico’s eyebrows shot up in shock. His father had never given him anything in his entire life. “What for?’ he asked.

“You’re turning 21 in a couple months, aren’t you? I decided to get you something that you might find useful. Also, Persephone wanted me to find a way to make up to you for her, ah, little temper tantrum.”

“’Little temper tantrum?’” Nico demanded, “She turned me into a flower!”

“Only for two weeks. And she changed you back.”

“I was still a dandelion for _two weeks_!” Nico exclaimed.

“Maybe next time you want to summon the dead you won’t dig the hole in her garden. And Persephone is sorry about the whole affair.”

“No she isn’t. The only reason I’m not still planted in the ground is because you made her change me back,” Nico said. And it was true. Persephone had hated Nico since the day she laid her eyes on him. Nico reminded her of her husband’s unfaithfulness. Nico really didn’t blame her for hating him but he didn’t appreciate her bitchy attitude toward him. Persephone often taunted him about his mother (though not in Hade’s hearing) and Nico’s usual responses did nothing to endear him to her. Nico knew that if Hades had not stepped in when he had been turned into a dandelion he would still be a cute, little flower in Persephone’s garden.

“Nico, you need to let it go,” Hades told him.

Nico scowled at his father. While his and his father’s relationship had improved from when he was a teenager, Hades was still very far away from winning Father of the Year.

Hades looked at him, not really caring about Nico’s annoyance. “Do you want it or not?”

“Yes,” Nico muttered after a short pause.

Hades looked a little smug as he reached into his robes and pulled out a plain black ski mask. He handed it to Nico.

“A ski mask? Not really my style,” Nico commented.

Hades glared at him. “Don’t be smart with me, boy. That isn’t just a ski mask. It is a powerful weapon, modeled after my helm. It is, of course, not as powerful but is still a very strong weapon.”

Nico looked at the mask with new respect. Nico knew exactly how powerful his father’s helm was and if the ski mask had even a fraction of that power it was definitely something Nico wanted as a weapon. A very generous gift on Hades part.

“Now, that mask has the same power as my helm. It can allow you to become part of the shadows around you so that you cannot be seen, touched, or heard by anything or anyone. It can also generate fear at your command, but not nearly as strong as my helm can. That mask can incapacitate a person with fear but it cannot kill them. Also, it won’t work on certain monsters, like the Furies, but it should work on most,” Hades told Nico.

Nico turned the mask over in his hands. He was surprised that something that looked so ordinary could be so powerful.

“Wow, uh….thanks Dad,” Nico muttered. He wasn’t very good with family stuff.

Hades just nodded at him. He wasn’t any better with heartfelt moments than Nico. It ran in the family.

Hades titled his head to the side. He appeared to be listening to something Nico couldn’t hear. “It appears someone is trying to wake you,” Hades told Nico.

Nico sighed. It was probably Rachel again. Maybe instead of wards to keep monsters out of his cabin, Nico needed to set up some to keep her out. He probably wouldn’t get to sleep past 11:30 ever again if he didn’t.

Hades’ throne room began to fade into shadow – Nico was waking up.

“Oh, and Nico, one more thing. Don’t get too attached to that little Oracle. Apollo can be very protective of them,” Hades advised as he too faded away.

* * *

 

Nico was aware that someone was shaking him roughly. He rolled over on his side and hoped that Rachel went away.

“Nico, wake up or I am going to dump a bucket of ice on your fucking head!” A woman’s high- pitched voice threatened. It wasn’t Rachel after all.

Nico rolled back over and peeled his eyes open to glare at the short woman standing over him. It was Diane. Did either she or Rachel care that Nico was trying to sleep and didn’t like waking up to someone trying to shake his shoulder off?

“Oh, good, you’re alive. I was starting to get my hopes up that you died in your sleep. Do you always sleep so heavily?”

Nico scowled at her but didn’t respond. It was way too early for him to be awake, especially considering he went to bed at 2:30. Nico could see the sunrise through his window.

“I take it you’re not a morning person then?” Diane grinned at him as he sat up, still wrapped up in his blanket to protect him from the morning chill.

“Is there something you need?” Nico grouched at her.

“Yes. We’ll be leaving soon, so you need to get your ass out of bed. Then we can go wake up Rachel.”

“What time is it?”

“Around 7 AM,” Diane told him.

Nico groaned and stood up. It was definitely too early to be awake. He was going to need a lot of coffee if he was going to go through the day with only five hours of sleep.

“Ew, Nico, put it away. It’s too early to see something that horrific,” Diane cried, dramatically throwing her arms in front of her face to shield her eyes from Nico’s bare chest.

Nico smirked at her. “Don’t pretend you don’t like it.”

“Someone needs to knock you down a few pegs or your inflated head isn’t going to fit on the plane.”

Nico opened his mouth, but before he could say anything Diane was already out the door, telling him to be ready in half an hour.

Nico shook his head and walked over to his dresser to get some clothes but paused when he saw something lying on his bed that hadn’t been there a moment before. Nico picked it up; it was the ski mask his father had given him in his dream. Nico fiddled with it absently and grinned to himself. He was going to have a lot of fun with this.

Nico put his new mask on his coffee table and grabbed his bag of toiletries. He decided it was probably best to get ready before Diane came back and actually did dump a bucket of ice on his head. As he walked out of his door and headed to the showers, he made a mental note to find a way to keep both Diane and Rachel out of his cabin while he was trying to sleep. Preferably before they got too comfortable with barging in whenever they felt like.

Half an hour later, Nico and Diane were standing in front of Rachel’s door in the Big House. Rachel had 20 minutes to get ready if they wanted to make their flight with time to spare.

“So why does she get to sleep more than I do?” Nico asked Diane grumpily.

“Because I like her more than I like you,” Diane answered as she picked Rachel’s lock. She hadn’t responded to their knocking and Diane wouldn’t let him shadow travel inside. Apparently that was rude but picking her lock wasn’t.

A couple minutes later, Diane was poking Rachel’s cheek to get her to wake up while Nico strolled around her room, looking at her paintings. Nico found it very unfair that Rachel got poked and Nico got his shoulder dislocated when Diane decided to wake them up.

Nico looked over to Rachel’s bed. Rachel was asleep on her back with one arm on her stomach and the other under her pillow and her hair spread out like fire around her head. She was really pretty when she slept. Her face was soft and she looked so relaxed. Nico looked back to Rachel’s paintings so Diane wouldn’t catch him staring.

When Rachel finally woke up, Nico looked back over at them. Nico liked the way Rachel looked when she just woke up, no matter what he told her. Her hair was tangled and her eyes were a little puffy but she still looked beautiful. Rachel glared at Diane and rubbed her cheek.

“What are you two doing here?” She asked.

“It’s time to get up. We have a flight to catch,” Diane told her.

“Ugh,” Rachel groaned as she flopped back onto her bed, “Can’t it wait a couple more hours?”

“No. Now get up. I’m tired of mothering you two idiots.”

When Rachel didn’t move, Diane pulled her back up into a sitting position. “If you don’t get in the shower right now, I will have Nico carry you in there.”

“Stay in bed, Rachel,” Nico told her, “That sounds fun.”

Rachel glared at him and stood up with great dignity. Which was hard to do when she was wearing men’s boxers and an oversized t-shirt riddled with holes. She gave Nico a dirty look when he laughed.

Rachel stalked into the bathroom. When they heard the sounds of her shower running, Diane turned to Nico. “I’m going to go make sure Argus is ready to take us to the airport. Be ready to leave in fifteen minutes.”

“Fine,” Nico said as she walked out again. No matter what she said, Nico was sure that Diane liked to mother them. She was so bossy all the time. Nico only hoped that that was just the way Diane was and it wasn’t some trait that she got from her mother. Nico really didn’t think he could deal with a bossy goddess on top of a bossy half-blood.

When Rachel got out of the shower Nico grabbed their bags and they walked up Half-Blood Hill. They didn’t talk on the way, mostly because Rachel was still mad at him about his comment earlier. She sometimes liked to give him the silent treatment when he annoyed her. Nico figured it was her way of not fighting with him.

When they got to the top, they found Argus and Diane already there. Diane was petting Peleus, the dragon who guarded the Golden Fleece. Peleus was a very kind to most of the campers, letting them pet him or give him snacks. He didn’t like Nico though; Nico probably smelt like death to Peleus too. Anytime Nico got too close to the dragon, he started eyeing him in a way that made Nico feel like a prime cut steak.

Rachel yawned and walked over to rub Peleus’ head while Nico trudged over to the car that was waiting for them. Argus followed him silently. When he got the car, he dumped his bag and Rachels in the trunk with Dianes and went to sit shotgun while Argus leaned against the driver side door and watched Diane and Rachel play with Peleus.

A few minutes later, the girls slid into the backseat and Argus started driving towards the airport. The ride was mostly silent, since Rachel still giving Nico the silent treatment and Nico attempting to take a nap. It was hard to fall asleep though when Argus kept making sharp turns and Diane’s phone vibrating every minute. Nico didn’t know who she was texting but he also didn’t care. He just wished she would put her phone on silent, but he didn’t bother asking; he knew she would just ignore him and put the thing on loud.

After a while, Nico did doze off. When he woke up, they were already at the airport. Nico sat up and stretched as best he could in the car.

“Thank gods, your snoring was getting annoying,” Diane said when she saw that he was awake.

“Shut up, I don’t snore,” Nico replied.

“How would you know? You were asleep.”

“I just know I don’t. Someone might have mentioned it to me if I did.”

“And who would tell you? We all know you’re a bigger virgin than Rachel.”

“For your information, I am not a virgin. I have –“

“Ok, ok. We don’t want to know, Nico,” Rachel interrupted before Nico could say anything else.

Nico rolled his eyes and got out of the car when Argus found a parking space. He walked around to the trunk and pulled out all their bags. Nico walked into the airport while Rachel and Diane said goodbye to Argus and after he drove away, they followed Nico inside.

* * *

 

An hour later, they were in the air. Nico was, of course, sitting in between Rachel and Diane. Diane had insisted on taking the aisle seat and Nico had let Rachel take the window seat when she had given him that damn puppy-eyed look he couldn’t figure out how to say no to. So as a result of him having next to no backbone, he was forced to sit in between the two girls while they gossiped about some celebrity Nico had never even heard of.

Nico was slouched in his seat, listening to his music on shuffle, trying to block out Diane and Rachel’s voices. That was proving difficult since they were both practically talking into his ears. Nico took a sip of his coffee without opening his eyes. This plane ride was even worse than he had imagined and staying up late was proving to be a seriously bad decision. Nico had no idea how Rachel was still awake. He also didn’t know how the two girls could take about the same person for as long as they had.

Rachel pulled out one of his earbuds. Nico opened one eye to look at her. “Can I help you?” he asked in a mock polite tone.

“Do you want anything?” Rachel asked, pointing out the flight attendant standing next to Diane’s seat.

“No thanks,” Nico said slowly. The flight attendant smiled at him and walked away.

Nico watched the woman walk away; there was something about her, something off. Nico couldn’t place it, but he knew there was something wrong with her. There was nothing off about her appearance; she had light brown hair pulled back into a tight bun and brightly painted lips. She looked like any other flight attendant would. But there was something about her that made Nico uneasy.

Nico was usually pretty good at sensing monsters. He could sense a hellhound from a mile away but it was hard for him to identify a monster if it wasn’t one that was under his father’s control or if it wasn’t particularly powerful.  
Nico kept his eyes on the brown haired flight attendant while she went around and talked to the other passengers on the plane. He didn’t look away until she disappeared behind a curtain that led to the first class seats.

“Could you be any more obvious, Nico?” Rachel interrupted his thoughts. She sounded irritated.

“Hmm?” Nico turned to look at her.

“You were staring at that poor woman like you wanted to jump on her,” Rachel scowled at him.

“I was not.”

“You so were,” Diane jumped in.

“I was just looking at her at her. Not staring like I want to get in her bed,” Nico tried to defend himself. 

“Well, why were you looking at her?” Diane asked.

“I was looking at her because there’s something…not natural about her.”

“Yeah, like her boobs,” Rachel grumbled.

Nico turned to look at her. “Jealous, Dare?” he smirked.

Rachel narrowed her eyes at him and Nico mentally kicked himself. That was exactly the kind of thing he was supposed to not say and the exact thing that had the potential to start a fight. Which is exactly what they didn’t need if there was a monster on the plane. It would be kinda hard to fight if Rachel was giving Nico the silent treatment again.

“No, asshole, I am not jealous. Why would I be?” Rachel asked, her eyes daring him to answer.

“Nevermind,” Nico muttered, “But there was something off about her.”

Rachel was still looking at him like she wanted to punch him. Diane probably noticed it too. “What, you think she’s a monster?” she asked.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“You don’t know for sure?” Rachel questioned.

“I’m not a goddamn satyr. I can’t always be 100% sure. I’m just saying we need to keep an eye on her is all.”

“What if she is though? We’re on an airplane full of mortals. What can we do about her?” Rachel asked, dropping her voice to a whisper and leaning close to Nico when the flight attendant walked back through the curtain. Nico suppressed a shiver when he felt Rachel’s breath fan across his cheek.

“She might not do anything,” Diane muttered quietly.

“Monsters don’t just hop on planes and go to China, Diane. She’s here for a reason and that reason is probably us,” Nico told her.

“Well, we can’t just go over there and stab her in the chest,” Rachel said, watching the woman as she walked through the curtain again.

“Obviously. She might not do anything right now; she could be waiting until the plane lands. We’ll just have to watch her. We can do it in turns. It’d be too obvious if we all stare at her,” Nico said while keeping an eye on the curtain.

“There goes my peaceful plane ride,” Rachel muttered under her breath.

Nico ignored her. “I’ll watch first.”

“Awesome. I’m gonna take a nap. Don’t talk too much, jackass,” Diane said to Nico as she curled up in her seat. Rachel grinned at the insult and pulled out her iPod. She put in her headphones and leaned against the window, watching the clouds.

Nico looked away from her and back to the curtain the flight attendant keep going behind. He shifted in his seat trying to get comfortable. This flight just kept getting better and better.

A couple hours later, Nico was woken up by Diane poking him in the ribs. Nico rubbed his eyes and looked around. The first thing he noticed was that Rachel was asleep with her head on his shoulder and one hand lying on his thigh. Nico stared at her with wide eyes before looking at Diane. She just grinned at his shocked and slightly panicked expression before getting comfortable in her own seat and closing her eyes.

Nico looked back at Rachel’s sleeping face. He wondered how long she had been sleeping like that. Nico wasn’t sure why he was weirded out by her using him a pillow, but he was. He wasn’t that used to girls being comfortable enough with him to sleep on him. Nico was also weirded out because he also kind of liked the fact that she was sleeping against his shoulder. Nico decided to let her stay there. He would take being a little uncomfortable over her waking up and realizing she had curled up against him in her sleep. She probably wouldn’t be happy about it.

Nico took his eyes off of her and looked around the plane to keep watch. He didn’t see anything strange for a couple hours – just sleeping mortals and a couple flight attendants who weren’t the brown haired lady.

Nico kept his eyes on the curtain until the suspicious flight attendant came back. She didn’t walk around the cabin like the other flight attendants but instead looked straight at Nico and smiled. She started walking slowly towards them. Nico shook Rachel and Diane awake without taking his eyes off of her.

Both Rachel and Diane woke up quickly. They immediately noticed the woman advancing on them like a tiger stalked its prey.  As she walked, Nico started staring at her for a completely different reason. She suddenly seemed like one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. Nico couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

Rachel shook him hard. She had noticed his mesmerized stare. “Nico! What the hell is wrong with you? There is a monster coming at us!”

Nico broke eye contact with the woman and looked at Rachel dazedly. “Uhh...”

Diane sighed in disgust. “He’s so useless,” she said as she pulled out a little square of metal and stood in the aisle. “She’s an empousa, Rachel. That dumbass isn’t going to help while he is under her spell. Slap him or something.” Diane pressed a button on her metal square and a Celestial Bronze katana folded out.

Rachel flicked Nico’s ear and walked past him to stand next to Diane in the aisle. She flicked her wrists and her two Trojan swords appeared. Nico watched them, shaking his head, trying to clear it. He knew the empousa was just putting her little seduction spell on him. Nico looked back to the empousa and saw that she had changed to her true form. Her eyes were blood red and her skin was as white as paper. Nico looked down and saw her mismatched legs; one donkey and one metal.

The empousa finally took her eyes off Nico and moved her attention to the girls. She sneered at them. “Do you really think you can kill me, half-bloods?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we can take you,” Diane answered confidently.

The empousa just smiled. She looked over her shoulder and whistled shrilly. Two more empousa disguised as flight attendants walked out and stood behind the first. “I couldn’t let you outnumber me, now could I?” she said.

Nico stood up and walked out into the aisle, his head finally clear. “Doesn’t matter how many of you there are, we’ll still kill you all,” he said more confidently than he felt. It would be hard to kill all of them but they also had to do it without waking the mortals. Nico pulled out his knife and checked to make sure his ski mask was in his pocket.

“We’ll see about that.”

The empousa attacked. The two that had been called lunged at Diane while the first stepped back to watch. She was obviously the leader in this trio and apparently she didn’t want to get her hands dirty.

Rachel and Nico jumped to help Diane. The empousa were strong. Nico got one of them to fight him alone while Rachel and Diane took on the other. Nico’s empousa swung its claws at Nico’s chest and Nico dodged. He jabbed his knife at the monsters stomach but she jumped out of the way. She circled around him and he moved with her, not wanting to let her get the upper hand.

Nico was distracted by a loud crash and turned to see that Rachel had been thrown against the wall of the plane. The mortals woke up at the sound and started screaming at the sight of knives and swords. Nico had no idea what they saw but he figured they were seeing the flight attendants getting attacked.

The empousa noticed Nico’s momentary distraction and raked its claws down his arm. He jumped back and swiped at her. He seriously wished he had his sword, but it was in his bag in the overhead compartment. Nico flexed his arm, trying to assess the damage. The wound didn’t seem too bad.

Nico jabbed at the empousa again. She jumped back and stayed out of reach. Nico shifted into a slight crouch and held his knife in front of him, trying to ignore the warmth spreading over his arm and shoulder. Nico watched the empousa carefully and noticed that she was staring at his arm. She seemed transfixed by the sight of his blood. Nico took advantage of her distraction and stabbed her in the chest before she could defend herself. The empousa exploded into a shower of dust with a wail.

Nico looked around and saw that Rachel had gotten up and rejoined Diane. They seemed to have the upper hand against their empousa but she kept getting close to the mortals who were cowering in their seats, making it harder for the girls to get at her. Since they seemed to be holding their own, Nico turned his attention to the other empousa, who was still watching the fights.

The brown haired empousa smiled at him invitingly and disappeared behind the curtain. Nico knew that she was waiting for him to follow and would probably stab him the second he walked through that curtain. Nico reached into his pocket and pulled out his new ski mask. Now was as good a time as any to try it out.

He pulled it on and looked around. Everything looked like half the color had been drained out of it. Nico looked down at himself and saw nothing. Nico decided he really liked this ski mask.

“Where did that boy go?” Nico heard a woman yell behind him.

Nico grinned. He would have to thank Hades again for this. Nico walked over the curtain and walked through the wall next to it like it was air. He found the empousa waiting behind the curtain – waiting for him just like he knew she was. Nico strode up behind her and gripped his knife tightly. He looked down to the place where his hand should be and willed it to appear; it did. It looked like a hand was floating in midair holding a knife.

“Cool,” Nico said to himself. The empousa, of course, did not hear him.

Nico looked at the empousa’s back thoughtfully. This was a good opportunity to try out something else. He pulled on his power and felt it ripple out around him. The empousa gasped and looked around. She looked terrified. Nico smirked as she looked around and whimpered. Nico raised his knife before she could notice his disembodied hand and stabbed her in the stomach.

Nico pulled off his mask and stuck it back in his pocket. He walked through the curtain just in time to see Rachel stick her sword through the empousa and it explode all over her.

Rachel stepped back. “Urgh. I hate when they do that.”

Nico walked over to them. “Nice.”

“You too,” Rachel said, “Did you get them both?”

Nico nodded. He looked at the mortals who had gathered towards the back of the cabin and were still screaming. They clearly thought he and the girls were the threat. Nico glanced at Diane. “What are we going to do about them?”

“I don’t know. I can’t manipulate the mist.”

“Neither can I,” Nico chewed on his lip as he considered the mortals. He couldn’t let them off the plane like this and he couldn’t keep them on the plane either.

“I can make them forget.”

Nico and Diane spun around at the unfamiliar voice. It was Rachel… but it wasn’t. Rachel’s eyes glowed an unearthly green. It wasn’t Rachel who had just spoken; it was the Oracle.

The Oracle walked up to the frightened mortals and stood in front of them. They all shrunk back from her, probably afraid of her eyes. Delphi raised both her hands and Nico could see a ripple go through the air. As one the mortals all straightened, their eyes blank. They all walked back to their seats and sat down. The Oracle snapped her fingers and they all fell asleep.

Nico and Diane watched in stunned silence as the Oracle turned to face them. “They will not remember anything that has happened tonight,” she said in her strange voice. It was very much like Rachel’s but it was raspier, more ancient.

“Uh…thank you,” Nico said awkwardly.

The Oracle blinked. Out of nowhere she collapsed. Nico lunged forward and caught her before she hit the ground and pulled her into his arms.

“I think the Spirit of Delphi is gone,” Diane commented.

“You think?” Nico said as he carried Rachel back to her seat and set her down. Diane followed him and they both sat down.

“Well, that was fun,” Diane muttered.

“Tons. I love empousai.”

“You sure looked like you did earlier. I don’t even want to know what your perverted mind was imagining,” Diane teased.

“Shut up.”

Diane laughed. She was about to say something but was distracted when Rachel stirred. Nico turned to her and watched her face as her eyelids fluttered.

“Rachel? Can you hear me?” Nico prompted.

She groaned and opened her eyes. “Ugh. I feel like crap.”

“You look like crap,” Nico told her as he brushed empousa dust out of her hair.

“Thanks, asshole.”

“Rachel, do you feel ok?” Diane asked.

“Yeah, just a headache. It happens when Delphi takes over my body.”

“Good,” Diane nodded

Rachel rubbed her eyes and looked at Nico and Diane. Her eyes fixed on Nico’s arm.

“You’re bleeding,” she said.

“What? Oh, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“Doesn’t look like nothing,” Rachel muttered as she ripped his sleeve away from his arm.

Diane gasped. Nico looked down and saw three jagged wounds running from his shoulder to his elbow. They were deeper than he initially thought and bleeding profusely.

“Jesus, Nico. That’s nothing to worry about?” Rachel said as she dug out some bandages from her bag.

“It’s not that bad.”

“Oh, yeah, that empousa only almost took your arm off. But it’s not that bad,” Rachel said sarcastically.

Nico rolled his eyes at her. He watched her as she wound gauze around his arm and didn’t argue further. There was no point in it. He sat back and submitted himself to being babied. He took the ambrosia they gave him without complaint and allowed Rachel to move his arm this way and that so she could make sure nothing important was damaged.

When the girls had finally ascertained that he was fine, he leaned back against his seat and tried to go to sleep. The first day of this quest and they had already been attacked. By empousa, no less. Nico found that strange. Empousa never really went anywhere without being ordered to do so. And how did the empousa even know two half-bloods and the Oracle would be on this plane? Nico’s best guess was that whoever kidnapped Tyche knew about their quest and was trying to stop them.

Nico shifted in his seat at the thought. That would complicate things. But, Nico decided, all that could wait until the morning. Nico wanted to sleep. Nico closed his eyes and put all his concentration to not thinking. Within a few minutes Nico was asleep and dreaming.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

Chapter 4:

Rachel was standing in the shadows outside the airport with Nico watching Diane talk to a cab driver. They really were lucky she could speak some Chinese, even if she wasn't fluent. Diane had promised Rachel that she would at least try to teach her some phrases. Maybe knowing a little Chinese would make this whole quest easier, even though she didn't think they would be talking to many people.

"What's taking so long?" Nico grumbled beside her. He was in a bad mood because of his arm. Rachel was pretty sure he needed stitches but he refused to go to a hospital.

"How should I know?" Rachel said.

"You're the all-knowing Oracle and you don't even know what they're saying? You should be fired."

Rachel would have hit him but his bad arm was closest to her. She settled for a glare which made Nico smirk at her, again. That expression was really grating on her nerves. Sometimes it was endearing and she actually liked the way he looked but other times she wanted to claw it off his face. Standing outside the airport in the heat of Shanghai was one of those times.

Diane walked back over to them and grinned. "Well, he knows where we need to go so let's get moving," she told them.

They were headed to one of the houses Rachel's father owned. It was located pretty far from the city and as far as Rachel knew nobody had ever lived in it. Her father had hired maids and workers to keep the house nice and dust free but he never actually bothered to go there. Rachel had told her dad she was going to be staying there for a couple weeks so that he would give the maids and other workers a vacation – paid of course. Rachel didn't want someone dropping by when they were in the middle of demigod business. They would probably tattle to her dad and that wouldn't be a fun conversation to have with him.

They crowded into the back of the cab, with Rachel in between Nico and Diane. It was a tight fit – Rachel was practically sitting on Nico's lap. The taxi driver moved out from in front of the airport and started driving towards Rachel's father's house.

"How's your arm doing?" Rachel asked Nico when she noticed him grimacing every time he moved it.

"Great," he told her sarcastically.

"I still think you should go to the hospital."

"And pay them with what? Drachmas?"

"If you don't go to the hospital, then were gonna have to give you stiches ourselves," Diane told him.

"It's not that bad," Nico said.

"Yes it is. Your arm hasn't stopped bleeding. They're too deep to heal by themselves," Rachel told him, "We have to do something about it."

"I am not going to go to the hospital. If we do, they are going to want to know how I even got them in the first place."

Rachel sighed impatiently. Nico was such an idiot. He probably wanted to leave them alone, hoping they would scar so he would look like a badass or some bullshit.

"Well, do you trust me enough to give you stiches? With no pain meds or anything?" Rachel asked him in an exasperated tone.

Nico tilted his head. He appeared to be weighing his options, but both Diane and Rachel knew he was faking it. He had clearly made up his mind. "I'm not sure I trust either of you to sow my skin back together, but I think you, Rachel, are the lesser of two evils."

"Go to hell, dickwad," Diane snapped at him.

"Dickwad?" Nico raised an eyebrow at her.

"Nico, you remember how you said you were trying not to be an asshole?" Rachel asked him suddenly.

"Yeah…?" Nico said curiously, and a little cautiously.

"Try harder."

Diane laughed while Nico scowled at her but didn't say anything. Rachel just grinned at him, like a cat that had just caught a mouse.

Rachel looked away and shifted against Nico's side. He was surprisingly comfortable to use as a pillow as Rachel had found out earlier. She blushed a little at the memory. It had been pretty embarrassing to wake up and realize she had been sleeping on his shoulder. Rachel was almost glad the empousai showed up and distracted Nico the incident.

Rachel wondered at why Nico had let her sleep on him. He had been awake before the empousai had shown up and clearly he had known she was sleeping against his shoulder. Why hadn't he woken her up? Rachel would have thought Nico would have woken her immediately – probably rudely – and then tease her endlessly and accuse Rachel of drooling on him.

Rachel glanced up at Nico, wondering. She considered how he had acted the last few days as she stared at his defined jaw, which was coated with dark stubble. Nico could be very contradictory sometimes. He would act one way and then turn around and do something completely unexpected; it was disorienting. Even weirder was that they hadn't fought in the last day, not really.

Nico suddenly looked down at her. He didn't say anything, he just looked at her with one eyebrow slightly raised, silently asking her what she was staring at. They were close, their faces only inches from each other. Rachel looked away from Nico's dark brown eyes and glanced at his lips. She wondered what they would feel like against their own. Rachel looked back up at his eyes and found that his gaze was concentrated on her mouth. He slowly looked back up to her eyes and she stared back at him; there was something in Nico's eyes that she couldn't figure out.

Their staring only lasted for a moment before the cab driver made an incredibly sharp turn, throwing Nico against the car door, right on his injured arm.

"Fuck!" Nico yelled at the sudden impact.

"Nico, are you alright?" Diane asked sounding worried.

"Fine. That just hurt like a goddamn bitch," he muttered. Nico pulled off his black jacket and looked at his arm. Rachel fought the urge to lean over his lap and inspect it herself. His wounds were still bleeding and his entire right arm was covered in blood, as well as his shoulder and some of his torso. Rachel was amazed he was still upright after so much blood loss, but she figured the ambrosia they kept giving him was the only reason he could still walk.

Rachel rummaged around her bag and pulled out another square. "Are you sure you can handle this much?" she asked Nico.

"Yeah," he pulled the square out of her hand when she didn't give it to him.

"Well, if you burn up, do it somewhere away from me. I don't want to see that kind of shit," Diane told him as he chewed.

"I'll make sure I turn to ash on your bed, Diane. Just for that."

Diane glowered at him. "I will personally go the Underworld and throw your ghostly ass into Tartarus if you even try."

Nico smirked. "I'd take you down with me."

Rachel sat back while they bickered. She knew that it was friendly fighting. Diane just loved trying to get a rise out of Nico and Nico had just as much fun teasing her. Rachel wondered how long it would be until their play fights got annoying instead of amusing. Probably not long.

Nico and Diane argued like that during the rest of the drive. Rachel had gotten tired of the insults flying around and put in her headphones to listen to her iPod. She didn't take them out until they passed through the gate that led to her father's house. She had only been here once, when it was first built and her father wanted her to see what the house looked like. That was when she was twelve.

Rachel sat up and pulled out her still squealing headphones. She stuffed them into her bag and looked through the windshield of the taxi as the house came into view. It looked just like it had ten years ago.

"I thought you said house, not mansion," Diane gaped at the house.

"It's not that big."

"It's as big as the Big House!"

"I think it's bigger, actually," Nico said as he stared, "And we get it all to ourselves."

Rachel ignored them as they stared and got out of the cab. She was used to friends being surprised, and sometimes even awed at how large the houses she lived in were or how luxurious her apartment was. When she was a teenager, she had absolutely hated the attention it brought on her but now she was just resigned to it.

Diane and Nico stepped out of the cab and kept staring at the house. It was built much like the house she grew up in. Rachel was born in New York but she spent most of the first eight years of her life in California. Rachel's mother built the house in California and she designed this one as well. It was modern, painted an off-white color with a dark gray rooftop and light blue trim and large windows. The house was three stories tall, not counting the basement and attic.

Rachel looked at it with a slight feeling of nostalgia. She sometimes missed her California home. It was still there, but Rachel had never gone back. She knew that she missed her memories that happened in that house rather than the house itself.

Rachel shook herself from her thoughts of the past. Rachel watched as Diane paid the taxi driver with the cash Rachel had given her earlier and thanked him in Chinese. Nico grabbed all of their bags and stood next to her. Rachel took her bag from him and unlocked the door to their temporary home.

* * *

 

Nico swore violently. Rachel was in the middle of stitching up his wounds. They had finally convinced him to let her fix him up when he almost fainted from blood loss. Rachel was on the last of the three gashes. Rachel paused in her ministrations until he gulped some whiskey and nodded at her to continue. Rachel pulled the needle through his skin for about a minute before Nico pulled away, groaning in pain. It had been like this for an hour and a half. Rachel stitched him up for a minute or so and Nico spent the next five snarling and swearing at her and Diane and occasionally drinking whiskey to numb the pain.

"Can't you go a little fucking faster?" Nico snarled at her.

"We would have been done an hour ago if you would stop being such a baby and actually let me do it!" Rachel retorted.

Nico glared at her. Diane grabbed his shoulder to keep him still and Rachel continued to thread the needle through his flesh. She only had half the gash left to go before Nico pulled away again.

"How much fucking longer is this going to take?" he whined.

"I am almost done, Nico. Just sit still," Rachel told him as he drank some more whiskey.

"Well, hurry up," he snapped.

Rachel said nothing, not trusting herself to reply. It wasn't his fault he was in such an awful mood; anybody would be short-tempered when they were getting their skin sowed back together. But her understanding of his pain didn't stop her from wanting to stab his eyes out with her needle every time he opened his mouth.

Diane put her hands on both of Nico's shoulders and held him firmly in place while Rachel finished and Nico growled and swore some more.

"You know, you wouldn't be in this much pain if you had just gone to the hospital like a normal person," Diane told Nico pleasantly.

"Shut the fuck up," he growled at her.

"You're such a gentleman," Diane chuckled.

"Bitch."

"Dick."

"There, all done," Rachel said, interrupting their catfight.

"Finally," Nico snapped as he ripped out of Diane's grip and stood up.

"Feel better?" Rachel asked him.

"No," he told her unhappily and drank more whiskey. He had swallowed half the bottle – at the rate he was going he was going to spend the night vomiting in the bathroom or running around naked; whatever it was he did when he was drunk. Rachel hoped he did something funny. She could get it on film and blackmail him for life.

Rachel picked up her needle and all the bloody paper towels and threw them in the trash. Walking back over to the table where they had been working, she packed the first aid kit. They had been lucky to find it here, even luckier that it had contained needles and thread specifically used for stiches. She wondered why it was even here – nobody ever stayed here for more than the time it took to clean and dust.

Diane walked over to Nico and grabbed the bottle out of his hand. "That's enough of that," she told him.

"The hell, Diane?" he said as he tried to grab it back out of her hand.

"You're already drunk, dumbass. We need you functioning in the morning, not puking your guts up."

Nico scowled at her. It was obvious he knew she was right, even though he didn't like it. "I'm not drunk."

"Yeah, you are" Rachel told him, "Now go lay down somewhere and sleep it off."

Nico looked rebellious but he walked over to the wide couch that took up most of the living room and lay down. Rachel watched him, surprised. She hadn't actually thought he was going to listen to her. Maybe she should get him drunk more often.

Diane looked at Rachel, impressed. "He actually listened to you."

"I know," Rachel grinned at her, "Let's go pick out our bedrooms then. I call the master."

"Why do you get the master?"

"My house, I get the best room," Rachel said as she picked up her bag and walked up the sweeping, curved staircase that took up half the foyer.

Rachel liked the interior of this house. When she first walked through the door, the first thing she saw was the massive staircase. It led all the way up to the third floor with the landings to each floor evenly spaced around it. The living room was open and filled with light and had a huge flatscreen TV that dominated one entire wall. The dining room was full of marble and sparkling.

As Rachel and Diane explored, they both were a little awed at the house. It was beautiful and extremely extravagant. There were paintings on the walls and even a couple statues. Rachel was a little surprised at her mother's decorations. She didn't know how much her parents spent on this house, but it was clearly too much for a house that nobody stayed in.

"Holy shit," Diane gasped as she looked into a room on the second floor, "is this the master bedroom?"

"No. The master is on the third floor," Rachel told her.

"Well, I want this one. It's freaking huge. That bed alone is bigger than my dorm room back at college."

Diane walked in and dropped her bag on the bed. She looked around and smiled. "I like this house. Can we stay here for a while?"

"If you think this is great, why don't we go check out the master bedroom?"

Diane ginned and walked out of the room. They went and found the master bedroom and even Rachel was surprised at how large it was. Three people could sleep on the bed without touching each other or the edge of the mattress and there was enough room to park a small car in the open space between the bad and opposite wall. Rachel knew that after seeing this house she was definitely coming back - when she wasn't chasing after a goddess.

Rachel dropped onto the bed and sunk into the soft mattress. It was like heaven. "I am never moving from this spot," she told Diane.

Diane laughed and lay down next to her. "So… are we going to talk about what happened in the cab earlier?"

"What happened in the cab earlier?" Rachel asked, confused.

"You and Nico eye fucking."

Rachel chocked. She had not expected that. "What?" was all she could get out.

Diane smirked at her. "Oh, come on. It was so obvious. You were looking at him like you wanted to rip his pants off."

"I was not!" Rachel exclaimed, blood rushing to her cheeks.

"Yeah, you were. I was there, remember?"

"You're insane," Rachel told her, "I was not eye fucking with Nico."

"Sure, you weren't. But he was looking at you like he wanted to get you in bed. I swear, I thought he was going to make out with you right then and there."

Rachel sat up and shook her head. "You are imagining things. He would never kiss me."

Diane sat up too. "And why not?"

"Well, he's not stupid. I'm the Oracle. He can't kiss me."

"That's not what you said. You said he would never kiss you, not that he can't. Are you trying to say that if you weren't the Oracle, he would?"

"No! I'm saying that he doesn't like me that way."

Diane put her hand on her chest and looked at Rachel with mock sympathy. "You are so blind."

"If anyone here is blind, it's you. And why are we even talking about this?"

"Because I want to. And you can't deny that he's hot, 'cause he is."

Rachel's face felt like it was on fire. "I'm not saying he isn't."

Diane laughed at her. "Rachel, we both know that if you weren't the Oracle, you and Nico would be going at it all day long."

"And I am now done with this conversation," Rachel said as she got off the bed, her cheeks as red as her hair.

"You're in denial!" Diane laughed at her as she left the room and headed back downstairs.

She checked her appearance in one of the mirrors that littered the house when she got to the living room and saw that her blush still lingered a bit. Diane was completely wrong…for the most part. Of course, Rachel thought Nico was super hot but that didn't mean she wanted to sleep with him! Maybe had wanted to kiss him earlier, but that was it. Even though she had a crush on him, she didn't have any sexual feelings towards him; she could like him without wanting to get in his pants.

Rachel walked into the kitchen. Her father had had the maids fully stock the kitchen for her. Rachel pulled out a pack of oreos and sat on the counter to eat. She really should be eating something healthy for lunch, but she really didn't care.

"Oreos for lunch?" a deep voice said in her ear.

Rachel nearly fell off the counter at the sudden voice. She looked over her shoulder into Nico's intense eyes. A shiver ran down her spine; sometimes the way he looked at her made her want to run away and jump on him all at once.

"Stop doing that! It is so annoying."

"S'not my fault you scare easy. I'm just trying to help you. I mean what's going to happen when a monster comes at you from behind? Are you going to jump and shriek?"

"Are you suggesting that I start stabbing at you whenever you try to make me jump? Because I can totally start doing that."

Nico rolled his eyes at her and she grinned back. He bent down and picked up the oreo she had dropped and broke off a part of the black cookie.

"That's disgusting," Rachel told him as he put it in his mouth.

"What? It was just on the floor."

"And the floor is dirty."

"Hardly. I can see my goddamn reflection in the tile."

Rachel watched him as he scraped off the white part of the oreo with his teeth. She shook her head – she would be way too grossed out to eat off the floor. Rachel pulled out another oreo and bit into it and looked at Nico. He seemed to be in a much better mood. Maybe it was the alcohol that was still in his system.

"You're eating it wrong," Nico said randomly.

"You can't eat an oreo wrong," Rachel told him, taking another bite.

"Obviously you can. You eat it separately, not all at once."

"Don't tell me how to eat, jerk."

"I wouldn't if you ate like a normal person."

"Maybe I do eat like a normal person, and you're the one that eats like a weirdo."

"You're the one eating like a weirdo; everybody I know eats oreos like me."

"Well then everybody you know eats them wrong. If you were supposed to eat them separately, they wouldn't be smushed together."

"Whatever," Nico said. He leaned on the counter next to her and stole an oreo out of her bag.

"Did I say you could have that?" she asked, moving the bag out of his reach.

"You let me eat the other one."

"Only because it was on the floor," Rachel said, "I wasn't going to eat that one anyway."

Nico licked his oreo. "You want it back?" he asked, offering the damp cookie to her.

"You are so immature," Rachel told him.

Nico grinned at her as he took apart his oreo, flashing dimples she hadn't known he had. Rachel was surprised she hadn't seen them before. They made his smile even more attractive than it had already been. Rachel thought it was extremely unfair that he possessed everything she thought was attractive on a guy.

"How's the arm?" Rachel asked him.

"Fine. It hurts, but it's not too bad."

"Good."

Rachel and Nico sat on the counter and ate oreos for a couple minutes before she broke the silence. "So how did you do that thing on the plane?"

"What thing?"

"The disappearing thing you did. Was that shadow traveling?"

"No. My dad gave me a gift the day before the quest that let me do that," he explained.

"What is it?" Rachel asked.

Nico pulled out a plain black ski mask out of his back pocket. "It's modeled after his Helm of Darkness. It lets me become part of the shadows, stuff like that."

Rachel pulled it out of his hands and looked at it. "Like Annabeth's hat?"

"Yeah, but mine's cooler. I can walk through walls and make people and monsters feel fear whenever I want. And it'll make sneaking up on you even easier."

Rachel hit him on the chest and he laughed. Rachel liked Nico's laugh – it was deep and throaty. She wished he would do it more. She handed his mask back to him, hopped off the counter and walking into the living room.

Nico trailed behind her. He sat down next to her on the couch while she flipped through channels on the flatscreen.

"So what did you tell your dad? I mean, why does he think we're here?" Nico asked her.

"I told him it was for school."

"And he didn't question that?"

"Nope. He did care when I told him you were here though."

"Why would he care that I'm here?" Nico asked, looking confused.

Rachel looked him incredulously. "Most dads tend to care when their daughter is alone in a house with some random guy."

"Oh," Nico said with sudden understanding and Rachel rolled her eyes. He could be really dense sometimes.

Rachel found some stupid romantic drama channel and turned it on. She watched the screen for a while before looking over at Nico and bursting out in laughter at the disgusted expression he wore. He was looking at the screen like it was the most repulsive thing he had ever seen in his life.

"Gods, Nico, it's not that bad," she told him between chuckles.

He just looked at her like she was crazy. "Can you turn something else on?"

"No. I'm watching this. You don't have to, you know."

Nico grumbled to himself and slid down farther on the couch. Rachel tucked her legs in and rested her head on the armrest. She was still feeling jetlagged, but she didn't really want to sleep. She laid there throughout the show and then another from the same channel, occasionally laughing at Nico's comments and noises of disgust.

When the third show started, Rachel was tired of the predictable romantic drama. The story was always the same with hardly any variation. Rachel stretched out on the couch and rested her feet in Nico's lap while she scrolled through the channels again.

"When exactly did you decide that it was ok to use me as a pillow?" Nico asked Rachel, poking at her feet.

"When you let me," she smiled at him and dug her heel into his thigh to try and get him to stop messing with her feet.

Nico glared at her and flicked her ankle. "Just because I let you drool on my shoulder doesn't mean you can use me as a footrest whenever you feel like it."

"Shut up," Rachel said, kicking at him, "I don't drool."

"Believe what you want but don't say I didn't warn you," Nico said, "It's only a matter of time before you start slobbering over everyone."

"I can kick you in the jaw from this position. Or the balls," Rachel warned him.

Nico shot that infuriating smirk at her and trapped her feet against his lap. Rachel kicked at his large hands and Nico laughed at her unsuccessful efforts. Rachel glowered at him and turned her attention back to the TV. Nico chuckled and continued to mess with her shoes, but she ignored him. Rachel knew without looking that he was tying her shoelaces together.

After a while of her laying there Rachel's eyes grew heavier and heavier. Rachel knew she should go to her room and take a nap in her bed, but she didn't feel like it. That would require her to get off the couch and walk up the stairs, not the mention the fact that her shoelaces were still tied together. Rachel sunk into the couch and closed her eyes. Pretty soon she was completely knocked out.

It felt like Rachel had closed her eyes for only a minute when she was shaken awake. She opened her eyes and glared blearily at Nico. She was about to yell at him for waking her up but she noticed his serious expression and decided that she had been woken up for good reason.

"What is it?" Rachel asked as she sat up.

"There's a monster nearby," he said quietly.

"Are you sure?" Rachel asked, fully awake.

"Definitely. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I'm pretty sure it's heading towards us."

"I'll go wake Diane up," Rachel said.

When Rachel woke Diane up and they went back downstairs, they found Nico sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, apparently concentrating very hard on something. He looked up when they got close.

"A Scythian Dracanae. That's what's out there," he told them grimly.

"Are you positive?" Diane asked, looking out of one of the wide windows.

"Yes. It's definitely out there and it is heading this way. It's still pretty far away though. We have time."

"I don't think it's just a coincidence that it's here," Rachel said to Nico and Diane.

"What do you mean?" Diane turned to look at her.

"It seems weird. I mean, first the empousai on the plane and now a Scythian Dracanae is stalking us? I know that they could have come because you and Nico smell good, but I doubt it. It seems too strange. Empousai don't just hop on planes and dracanae don't really come out to go kill some half-bloods. I think someone is sending these monsters after us."

"Who would have the power to control not only empousai, but Scythian Dracanae? Dracanae don't normally take orders from anybody," Nico said.

"Maybe whoever kidnapped my mom is doing sending them. If they can kidnap a goddess, they can control a couple vampire bitches and snake women," Diane told them.

They all considered that. It would make sense for the kidnapper to be sending their lackeys after them.

Rachel turned to Nico. "How close is it?"

"Close enough. I can probably shadow travel to where they are right now."

"Well, you're taking us along," Diane said.

"Yeah, you're not going by yourself," Rachel added.

Nico probably would have argued but he knew that there wasn't time for that. He grabbed Rachel and Diane with no warning and suddenly Rachel's world was made up of dark shadows and menacing whispers. She felt like she was moving at an incredible speed and before she could get used to the sensation, they were in a shadowy clearing. Rachel couldn't see the lights of the house.

Diane staggered to the trees and vomited loudly. Rachel felt pretty nauseous herself but Nico looked perfectly normal. He was used to it. When Diane was finished she walked back over and gave Nico a dirty look. "You could have warned us about that," she scowled at him.

Nico just shrugged and looked around. Rachel assumed he was looking for the Scythian Dracanae. He had put them close to it, but not close enough to where they could see it. It was hard to see anything through with the shadows cast by the forest made even worse by the sun disappearing behind the trees.

They all were silent, trying to locate the Scythian dracanae with their ears. They each were watching a different part of the forest. They didn't want to move around too much because dracanae had excellent hearing and would be on them before they could even realize it. Nico was hoping they could surprise the thing and kill it fast. Rachel didn't think that was going to happen, but she hoped it would nonetheless.

They all froze as they heard a faint sound. It sounded like something very heavy was gliding over the crunchy leaves on the forest floor. Rachel saw Nico put on his ski mask and disappear. She locked eyes with Diane, who nodded at her, and they both moved silently to where the sound was coming from. Rachel had no idea where Nico had gone, but she assumed he was close to where the dragon woman was.

Rachel rubbed her bracelets nervously as she and Diane creeped through the trees. She didn't like that she was stalking a monster without her swords out, but both her blades glowed faintly and Rachel didn't want to give their position away.

When they finally found the dracanae Rachel saw that it was moving away from them, presumably towards the house. It hadn't noticed them behind it and it didn't know they weren't still in the house. Rachel rubbed her bracelets again and Diane pulled her folded up katana out of her pocket but neither brought out their weapons completely. They needed to get closer before they let the dracanae know they were there.

All of a sudden, the snap of a twig broke through the silent evening. Rachel froze and from the corner of her eye saw a deer fly through the forest's trees. Of all the rotten luck, Rachel thought to herself as she faced the dracanae's back. It had paused at the sudden sound and was turning around to face them. Knowing that in a second it would see her, Rachel flicked her wrists and her swords sprang into her hands.

The Scythian Dracanae turned around fully and faced them. She would have looked like a beautiful woman, but her face was too reptilian. Her eyes were a venomous green color with vertical black slits in the center. Her chest was bare and pale, with a large red scar running from her left shoulder to her right hip and instead of legs she had two gigantic snake trunks. The trunks were sickly yellow with brown splotches. Around her waist, she wore a wide leather belt with two long swords attached to it.

The snake woman smiled at them and pulled out her swords. Each one was wickedly sharp and was half as tall as Rachel was. Next to her, Diane's katana folded out and reflected the weak light that shined through the foliage.

Rachel was thinking of ways to take down the dracanae. It would be easier to do if she knew where Nico had gone. She and Diane could distract the monster and Nico could come up from behind and kill her. But Rachel had no idea where Nico had gone and she didn't want to call out to him and alert the dracanae that there was another half-blood around.

Rachel and Diane moved to either side of the dracanae. It looked between them, trying to decide who to take on first. Right when Rachel thought it was going to go after Diane, it lunged at her, the snake trunks propelling her faster than Rachel would have thought possible.

Rachel jumped out of the way of the dracanae's sword and rolled to stay out of reach. When she got back on her feet the dracanae was still bearing down on her. It slashed down at her and Rachel barely got her sword up in time. The dracanae was strong and Rachel's knees buckled from the effort of staying upright with all the weight pressing down on her. She slid her other sword underneath the first to try and even out the pressure.

Diane came at the dracanae from her side and attempted to stab her in the snake trunk but the dracanae was fast and moved out of the way. Diane stood next to Rachel and looked her over.

"You good?"

"For now," Rachel said, rolling her shoulders, "Where the hell is Nico?"

"Probably hiding in the trees and jacking off to the sight of us fighting for our lives," Diane grumbled.

Rachel would have laughed in any other situation. The dracanae was coming back at them. Diane looked at her and tilted her head to the side and then to the other side. Rachel understood what she meant; they had trained together for years at camp, after all.

When the dracanae was close enough they both dived to either side of the monster. The dracanae turned first toward Rachel and swiped at her with her ridiculously long sword. Rachel dodged and stabbed at the monsters chest. She missed her heat, but managed to stick her blade through the dracanae's stomach.

Rachel pulled her sword back out as the monster hissed in pain, showing off her forked tongue. While the creature was distracted by Rachel, Diane snuck up on her and tried to get close, but the dracanae heard her. She thrust her elbow back and hit Diane square in the chest. Diane flew and hit one of the large tress and fell in a heap in front of it and lay there, unmoving. The dracanae turned back towards Rachel, black blood pouring out of hole in its stomach.

"Do you really think you can win, little demigod?" it hissed at her. Rachel suppressed a shiver at the cold, hissing voice. "You can't. You will losssse and Tyche will be a captive of my masssster forever."

The dracanae lunged at Rachel before anything else could be said. Rachel rolled under the monsters gigantic swords and slashed at one of the creatures serpent trunk legs. More black blood gushed from the wound, but it didn't seem to slow the dracanae down at all. It moved like it wasn't even hurt.

The dracanae stabbed down at Rachel and missed by an inch. Rachel moved back, out of the monster's reach and was surprised when it turned around instead of advancing on Rachel. When its back faced Rachel, she saw what had distracted it. A long and deep gash had appeared on its shoulder and the dracanae was looking for what put it there.

Its green eyes focused on Diane's prone from and she started slithering over to her, obviously thinking Diane was faking being hurt and had attacked her. Rachel ran over and stood over her friend before the dracanae could get too close. The snake woman smiled coldly at her and raised her blades. "Your loyalty issss honorable. It issss too bad it will get you killed."

The dracanae raised her swords and Rachel got ready to deflect the blow. But before the dracanae's blades could begin their descent, an unseen sword ripped through the skin on the snake woman's chest, forming an X with the scar already there. The dracanae shrieked in pain and her swords fell away. Before the monster could regain its composure, Rachel sprang forward and swiped her sword at the dracanae's neck, severing the monster's head from its body. Black blood shot out from the decapitated body and Rachel was coated with the warm, sticky liquid.

The headless body wavered for a moment before turning into dust, which also coated Rachel, mixing with the stinking blood. She would have to spend the next week in the shower just to feel clean again. Rachel flicked her wrist and her swords shrunk back to bracelets.

Sudden laughter distracted Rachel. She looked over to the source of the sound and saw that Nico had reappeared and was laughing his ass off at her appearance. She stormed over to him and before he could react, punched him in the gut as hard as she could. He doubled over, holding his stomach and groaning. Rachel ignored him and walked back over to Diane, who was staring to wake up.

Rachel shook Diane's shoulder. "Diane, are you ok?"

"Fine. I'm fine," she said, shaking her head. When her eyes focused on Rachel, they widened. "What happened to you?"

"The Scythian Dracanae exploded on me when I cut its head off," Rachel told her grimly. It seemed like whenever she fought and killed a monster, it got the last word by covering her in monster dust or blood.

"Well, it's a lovely look. The blood really compliments your eyes."

Rachel rolled her eyes and helped Diane to her feet. Diane looked over at Nico who was still doubled over. "What's his deal?"

"I punched him."

"Yeah, and why did you do that?" Nico asked, scowling at her as he walked over, still rubbing his stomach.

"For laughing at me like a jackass. And for taking so long to help out with the dracanae."

"You guys were doing fine. And I did help," Nico muttered defensively.

"After I got knocked out. Next time, don't just watch us and actually join the fight when it starts. We know we're better fighters than you, but you could at least try," Diane snapped at him.

"Can we just get out of here? I want to take a shower," Rachel said before Nico could reply.

Nico grabbed Rachel and Diane's arms and they shadow traveled back to the house. Rachel immediately went up to her bathroom and stripped off her ruined clothes, leaving them in a bloody pile on the floor. The dracanae's blood had even soaked into her panties and bra, which was revolting.

Rachel stepped into the shower and turned on the water to the highest heat setting she could stand and started scrubbing at her skin. She stayed in the warm and comfortable space for almost an hour before finally getting out and going to bed, not even bothering to put any clothes on. She was exhausted. The second Rachel's head hit the soft pillows, Rachel was asleep and dreaming.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

Chapter Five:

"Nico, how many times have I told you to not leave your shoes in front of the damn door?" Rachel said from the doorway to Nico's room.

Nico looked up at her. He was sitting cross-legged on his bed, cleaning his sword. It was coated in gunk from a monster he had killed the night before. "I don't know, a couple hundred maybe?" he said and she glared at him.

"Then why do you keep doing it?" Rachel snapped at him. Nico could see that she was in a bad mood, made worse by his boots being in front of the door. Rachel had just gotten back from patrol outside the house and looked like she had killed something. She had yellow slime in her hair and smudge across her face and her clothes were ripped almost to shreds. Nico could see her light blue bra underneath her ruined shirt.

Nico forced himself to look at her scowling face. "Because I like trying to make you fall and break your neck?" he said, trying to lighten her up.

Rachel threw one of the shoes she was holding at him. Nico ducked before it could hit his head. She clearly was not in a joking mood. She threw the other one at him, this time hitting him in the shoulder before stalking away from his door and into the room across from his. Nico watched her as she slammed her door.

Nico stood up and closed his door, albeit more quietly. He tried to not let Rachel's mood get to him. They were all on edge. It had been almost a week since they had gotten here, and so far they were nowhere close to finding Tyche. All they had found was a shit ton of monsters outside the house. Most of them were empousai and some dracanae, but there were also some storm spirits that came and blew out the windows and a couple monsters that Nico had no name for. Diane had come up with the idea to patrol outside so they didn't get too close after Rachel had been cornered in a bathroom and almost fried to death by a storm spirit.

Rachel, Nico and Diane spent 8 hours outside every day, fighting off monsters that showed up or sitting around, bored. They alternated between who got what shift so that none of them got stuck doing the same one every day. Nico usually took the late night/early morning, though, mostly because when the girls did they were grumpier than usual.

Nico walked back over to his bed and finished cleaning his sword. Now that Rachel was back, it was his turn to go watch. He pulled on the boots Rachel had kindly thrown at him and walked downstairs.

"You're really good at pissing Rachel off, you know that?"

Nico turned around and saw Diane on the couch, grinning at him. "It's a skill," he shrugged.

Diane chuckled and turned to the TV. She was watching some crappy horror movie. "The look on her face when she tripped over your shoes again was hilarious. I wish I had gotten a picture."

"I'm not sure she'd like that. She looked like a hot mess. What did she fight off anyway?" Nico asked, leaning on the armrest of the couch.

"No idea. I didn't ask. I didn't want her to take her anger out on me. She looked pretty ticked. I'm surprised you don't have a black eye, actually."

"I would've but I'm good at ducking. And I think she was more concerned with getting that slime off of her than bashing my head in."

"For now. I'd sleep with one eye open if I were you," Diane told him as he walked to the front door. Nico smirked to himself and walked outside. He would love to see what Rachel would try to do to get back at him.

* * *

 

Nico walked around the dark forest, absently picking at his nails. He had been out there for almost 7 hours and had seen absolutely nothing. That was the worst thing about the watches; the boredom. At least when a monster tried to eat him, he got to do something, but walking around the house and trying to stay alert when nothing was happening was hard. Nico had already caught his mind drifting twice. He tried to focus on his surroundings and stay focused. He didn't want a monster to get to the house on his guard – Rachel would really kick his ass then.

He sighed, thinking of her. He was still attracted to her, but it was worse now. It wasn't physical attraction to her that was the problem. Nico had gotten himself under control more or less. Nico wasn't only attracted to her looks, he was attracted to her. She still annoyed the crap out of him at times, but he found that he didn't really care much if she irritated him when they spent time alone together, which was often because she liked to talk to people and he was the only one available when Diane watched over the house. At those times she was fun to be around and Nico really enjoyed talking to her. He looked forward to it every day.

Rachel was funny, smart, nice and a bunch of other things Nico liked. He knew pretty soon after they got to the house that there really wasn't any getting over Rachel; or at least not any time soon, and certainly not while she was still around. Their relationship had gotten a lot better over the week. He knew when he needed to stop talking to avoid a fight and she realized what things annoyed him so that he would start one. Now, instead of fighting, they mostly messed with each other, which Nico liked for some reason. Sometimes, it almost seemed like Rachel was flirting with him.

Nico was wary of how well they were doing though. He felt like sometime, and sometime soon, he was going to do something stupid and ruin it all. He didn't know what would happen, but he felt like something was about to, and that it would not be good.

Nico shook his head. His mind was wandering again. He stared into the foliage and continued walking in a path he had memorized, making sure there were no more monsters around.

When his shift was finally over, he walked back to the house with the sun rising above the trees, making them look welcoming instead of sinister. It was around five in the morning, so only Diane was awake when he walked through the front door. This time he remembered to not leave his boots in the doorway, and instead moved them to where Rachel and Diane kept their shoes. Nico would have just taken them off in his room, but Rachel got mad at him when he tracked mud through the house. For someone whose room looked like a tornado had ripped through it, she sure did care about the carpet of this house.

"You're early," Diane said as he walked in.

Nico yawned and pushed a hand through his hair. He did not like being awake this early. "So?"

"So, that means I have to watch longer."

"I don't care. I'm going to sleep."

Diane rolled her eyes and walked out of the house. Nico slowly walked up the stairs and went into his room. He hated taking the night shift because it messed him up so much. He didn't sleep until 5 am and he didn't get up until around noon when Rachel woke him up then, telling him he was a lazy ass. It was going to take forever for him to get used to sleeping through the night again.

He pulled off his clothes and fell into bed. Pulling the covers to his chin, he closed his eyes and was asleep in minutes.

* * *

 

Nico woke up to Rachel poking his shoulder. He peeled one eye open to glare at her. She was sitting on the edge of his bed, with her hair in a high ponytail and was wearing a tight tank top and soft looking shorts. Nico looked away from her and pressed his face back into his pillow. It was too soon to start testing him.

Rachel poked him again. "Nico, time to get up."

"Why?" he groaned, the pillow muffling his voice.

"Because I'm bored and want to talk to someone."

"No. I want to sleep. Go away."

"Nicooooo," she whined, pulling on his blanket.

Nico kept a firm grip on it so it wouldn't slip away. He looked back at her so he could scowl at her but realized too late that she was making that damn face, making her eyes all wide and making her chin tremble so that it looked like she would cry if he didn't give her what she wanted. He could never say no to her when she did and he had no idea why it had such an effect on him.

He cursed under his breath and sat up. Rachel beamed at him while he rubbed his face. It was 11 in the morning.

"We need to get you something else to talk to. I like sleeping," he grumbled and stood up, keeping his blanket wrapped around him. He was wearing boxer briefs and really didn't want to give Rachel a show. He could only imagine the self-esteem destroying comments that she would throw at him.

"Yeah, like what?"

"I don't know, a plant or something. That way everybody can see you talking to it and will know exactly how crazy you are."

Rachel threw his pillow at him, which he didn't bother deflecting. He was used to her throwing things at him and a pillow was always preferred over shoe or a remote control. Those things hurt. "Just get downstairs," she told him and walked out of the room.

"Make me pancakes!" he called after her. He heard her yell back, but couldn't understand what she said. Probably something along the lines of "Make them yourself" or "I'm not your slave." Or she could have just called him a sexist pig and told him to fuck off.

Nico walked downstairs after his shower and smelled something good in the kitchen. He saw Rachel at the counter frying bacon. There was a plate full of pancakes next to her. Nico grinned. Rachel might act like she wasn't going to do anything for him, but she always did when it came to cooking. Rachel loved cooking and Nico loved her cooking. Especially her pancakes.

Nico snuck up behind her and grabbed her hips. He could never pass up an opportunity to scare her. Rachel gave a very frightening squeak and whirled around to find Nico doubled over laughing. He always found her hilarious when she was startled – especially when she made sounds like that.

Rachel stood there, scowling at him while he straightened, still chuckling. "You're such a jerk. I'm not letting you have any of the food I made."

"Ah, come on. Please?"

"Nope. Not unless you make it up to me," she said, turning back to the bacon. While she was distracted, Nico reached over and tried to snag a pancake off the plate but instead got a sharp smack from a wooden spoon.

"Ow, shit!" he exclaimed and rubbed the red mark on his hand, "That fucking hurt!" He glared at Rachel while she shook the spoon in his face.

"Don't touch my pancakes. You have to make me forgive you. No food until you do."

"What do I have to do?" Nico grumbled, still rubbing his hand.

Rachel tapped the spoon against her chin and appeared to think about it. Nico knew that whatever it was she was going to make him do, he wasn't going to like it. But he wanted breakfast and didn't want to make it himself when he knew just how good Rachel's pancakes were. "Hmmm….I'll be nice and give you a choice. Either you can promise to never scare me again, and if you promise and do scare me I will kick you in the balls, or you can tell me I am the most beautiful, most amazing, most fantastic woman in the world and you wish you were half as amazing as I am," Rachel told him, ginning widely, "and if you don't like either of those, you can be my slave for a day."

Nico narrowed his eyes at her. She was having way too much fun with this. He didn't really like any of those options, but there was no way in hell he was going to be her slave. Nico leaned in close to her, his lips almost at her ear. "You are the most beautiful, most amazing, most fantastic woman in the world and I wish that I was half as amazing as you are," he whispered softly. If she was going to play dirty, so was he.

Nico pulled back and saw that Rachel was blushing furiously. She wasn't looking at him. Nico looked at her curiously; had she really been that affected by him whispering seductively in her ear? But then again, most women would be blushing if a guy whispered something like that in their ear, even if they told them to. Nico decided to forget about it, but he couldn't help but like the fact that he had made her blush redder than her hair.

"Can I have pancakes now?" he asked her.

"Alright," she murmured, still not looking at him, "but don't eat them all. I want to save some for Diane." She appeared to have recovered from whatever Nico had done to her.

Nico grinned and picked one off the plate. Rachel gave him a withering look. "What?" he asked her. "You said I could have some."

"I was also under the impression that you wouldn't eat them with your bare hands and that you get a plate like a normal person."

"Why should I? There's no syrup on them or anything. And then I would have to clean the plate, which I don't feel like doing."

Rachel rolled her eyes and turned back to her bacon. Nico stayed close and continued picking pancakes off the plate. They didn't talk much until the bacon was done and Rachel called Nico a savage for picking a piece off the pan she had been cooking on. His eating habits annoyed her greatly. After their short breakfast, Rachel decided she wanted to watch a movie and made Nico watch it too.

"Fine, but no romantic comedies," he said as she knelt in front of the TV where all the movies were kept. "Actually, you know what, I want to pick."

"Why would I let you pick?" Rachel asked him without looking over.

"Because you always choose the movies and they always suck."

"Star Trek didn't suck. And if you say it did, I'll kick your ass," Rachel glared at him. She could be very touchy about her favorite movies.

"It was funny, but it was weird. I mean really, whales?"

"Whales are important!"

"Whatever. I'm still picking the movie," he told her, kneeling down and pushing her out of the way.

Rachel huffed, but went to sit on the couch. Nico looked at the titles, tilting his head to the side so that he could read them better. He grinned when he found one he wanted to watch. He pulled the disc out and fed it to the DVD player.

When Nico resumed his seat on the couch, Rachel immediately stuck her feet in his lap. Nico was used to it by now. No matter what he did, she just kept using him as a pillow and eventually he just gave up trying to stop her. He had officially become Rachel's favorite footrest.

Nico absently picked at her fuzzy socks while Rachel fast- forwarded through the credits. "So what movie did you pick?" she asked him, watching the screen with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Nico smirked and said nothing. He had found the perfect movie in the endless stack of DVDs. He knew Rachel would absolutely hate him for it, but he was going to enjoy her reactions.

When the title screen came up, Rachel swiveled to glower at him, painfully digging her heal into his leg. "No," she said, getting up to go change the disc.

"Oh, yes. I got to pick, and that's what we're going to watch," Nico said, pulling her back down. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders to keep her in place and yanked the remote control out of her hands. He pressed play and sat back.

Rachel was fighting to get out from under his arm. Nico just held on tighter. "Don't be a wimp, Dare. It's just a movie. You've lived scarier things that whatever Hollywood can throw at you."

Rachel jabbed him in the side. "I hate scary movies! Especially ones with demons in them."

"Too bad. I happen to like this movie. So shut up and get comfortable."

Nico removed his arm from Rachel when she stopped fighting. She had an air of resignation about her as she curled up on the couch. "Wait, hold on," she said.

Nico raised an eyebrow, but paused the movie anyway. "What?"

"I need to get something," she said and ran up the stairs. When she came back, she had pulled on a black hoodie – one of Nico's hoodies.

"Why are you wearing that?"

"So I can hide at the scary parts. Duh."

"I got that, thanks," Nico said sarcastically," I was wondering why you're wearing my hoodie."

"I didn't bring one with me. And it's soft. Besides, it's not like you were using it."

"How do you know I wasn't using it?"

"I stole it like two days ago."

Nico looked at her surprised as she got back on the couch. "How many more of my clothes have you stolen?"

"Oh, this and that. Just enough for the ritual," she told him, grinning.

Nico rolled his eyes and restarted the movie. Within the first 20 minutes, Rachel was already cowering inside Nico's hoodie, much to his amusement. Every time something popped out or something freaky happened, Rachel did something that made him laugh out loud. He wasn't even watching the movie, Nico was watching Rachel, partly because she was funny when she was scared and partly because he liked the way she looked in his hoodie. It was huge on her. She had her legs tucked into it, with her chin resting on her knees inside the jacket and the hood pulled over her head so the only parts of her he could see were her bright green eyes and her feet where they stuck out. Nico wondered why exactly she had stolen the jacket from him in the first place. He had heard that girls do that sometimes when they liked a guy, but he didn't think that was why Rachel took it. She probably wanted it because she got cold in the middle of the night. She complained about the temperature often enough for that to be a good explanation.

"What the hell is so funny about that? That was horrific," Rachel hissed at him when he laughed at her for nearly jumping off the couch.

"Nothing, except for the fact that that guy's blood shot 20 feet from his neck. I was laughing because you nearly fell of the couch."

Rachel hit him on the chest and he chuckled again, watching her face. Nico couldn't help but think she was cute she was angry like that. Her eyes got bright and her mouth bunched up, but she wasn't really mad. She was scary when she was super pissed off, but at that moment, she was just a little annoyed.

Halfway through the movie, Rachel wasn't even watching it anymore. She had hidden her face completely and Nico was trying to convince her to keep watching, but was having no luck.

"Come on, it's over now. He's at home in the middle of the afternoon, surrounded by people. Watch the movie."

"No," she said, her voice muffled by the hoodie.

Nico poked her side. She wiggled but didn't do anything else. Nico poked her again and again until she raised her head and glared at him. "Stop it," she hissed.

"Watch the movie. It's almost over anyway."

"No."

"If you don't, I'll keep poking you," Nico threatened, digging his finger into her ribs.

Rachel narrowed her eyes at him. Apparently, the poking was more annoying than watching the movie, because she turned back to the screen, her hands gripping the sides of the hood, ready to pull it over her head at a moment's notice.

Rachel seemed fine for a couple minutes until the main cut off the head of a possessed girl. When the beheaded corpse flung itself at the screen and the creepy looking demon rose out of it and started doing some really freaky stuff, Rachel jumped and before Nico could do anything, she had her face pressed against his chest. Nico froze for a minute, completely nonplussed by it. When he recovered from the shock, he tugged lightly on a strand of her hair.

"Can I help you?" he asked politely.

"Shut up," was her only response.

"You are such a wimp, Rachel. Seriously."

"Leave me alone, asshole. I told you I hate scary movies."

Nico chuckled and tugged on her hair again. Rachel reached up and smacked his hand away. "Stop doing that. Tell me when the scary part is over."

Nico twirled Rachel's hair around one of his fingers, ignoring her when she told him to leave her hair alone. Nico was always messing with something when he was around her and it usually was something on her, whether it was her hair, her shoes, or the necklaces and bracelets she wore sometimes. Rachel hated it. She was always telling him to keep his hands to himself and then telling him to sit still, when he started bouncing his leg. Nico wondered if he couldn't stay still because he was nervous about the quest and didn't realize it and that this was his way of letting off nervous energy, or if it was ADHD surfacing randomly.

"Ok, it's over."

"Are you lying?"

"Do you hear any screaming or demonic chanting?"

Rachel slowly raised her head away from his chest. Right when she relaxed enough to move away, a demon popped up on the screen and possessed a man, scaring Rachel back into Nico's shirt.

"You lied," she growled.

"How was I supposed to know that would happen?"

"You've seen the movie before. You knew that was going to happen. And now I'm going to have trust issues with you."

Nico smirked. "Whatever."

Rachel didn't look up once after that. She just stayed curled up against Nico's side, her face buried in the fabric of his shirt, absently playing with a hole in Nico's hoodie. Nico didn't mind that much – in fact he kind of liked the feeling of her pressed against him. Rachel didn't say anything until Nico told her the movie was over.

"I don't trust you."

"The credits are rolling, Dare. I don't think any more demons are going to pop up."

Rachel peeked up at the screen and made sure he wasn't lying before sitting up fully. She glowered at him. "That was the worst two hours of my life."

"Worst hour, you mean. The other hour was the best hour of your life."

Rachel looked confused. "Why was it the best?"

"Because you got to cuddle with me; obviously that's the best thing to ever happen to you."

Rachel rolled her eyes and got up. "You wish, Nico."

"Well, that's the most action you're ever going to get, so you should be grateful I let you use me for your gratification."

Rachel snorted. "The most action I'm ever going to get?" she repeated, "Actually, I think the most action I've gotten is kissing."

"Wait, who have you kissed?" Nico asked, twisting around on the couch to look at her.

"Percy. Before I was the Oracle, of course."

Nico's jaw dropped. "You kissed Percy? Since when?"

"Since I was...fifteen? Yeah, fifteen. Only once though."

"Does Annabeth know that?"

"Yes."

"And she hasn't killed you?"

"Well, she did hate me for a while when I first met her. She knew I liked Percy. Then I became the Oracle, and she liked me. She didn't like the fact that I liked Percy. She was jealous, even though she will never admit it. But, anyway, Diane should be back soon, and I'm going to go get ready."

Nico watched her walk up the stairs. She kissed Percy? Nico felt angry and he didn't really know why. He had sometimes wondered what her lips felt like – they looked so soft. Nico didn't like that he was wondering what it was like to kiss Rachel, when Percy already knew. Nico suddenly felt the need to punch Percy in the face the next time he saw him.

Nico made a sound in the back of his throat when he realized just what he was thinking He was jealous. He shook his head. He was actually jealous that Rachel had kissed someone five years ago. Jesus he needed to get a grip. So what if she kissed Percy when they were teenagers? She could kiss whoever she wanted. And besides, it was clear she didn't still like him. Or did she? Nico felt uncomfortable at the thought. What if Rachel did still have feelings for Percy and couldn't do anything about them?

Nico dismissed that thought. If Rachel had still liked Percy when she became the Oracle, she would have gotten over it pretty fast. She was smart enough to know how stupid it was to crush on someone when she couldn't act on it; especially when that crush had a girlfriend. Nico was sure from the way Rachel talked that she was over whatever she had felt for him. But Nico still wanted to hit Percy for kissing her.

Nico turned around when the front door opened. Diane stepped in, looking excited with monster dust in her hair.

"What's up?" Nico asked.

She ignored his question. "Where's Rachel?"

"Upstairs, getting dressed. Why do you look so happy?"

"Because I found out who kidnapped my mom."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

Chapter Six:

"How much longer are you going to take?" Nico called into the bathroom, his voice muffled by the closed door and almost drowned out by the sound of water cascading around Rachel.

"It takes a long time to shave, Nico. Deal with it. I'll be out when I'm out," Rachel yelled back.

Nico's warbled voice floated back to her, but Rachel couldn't understand what he said. Nico had shown up about a minute after she had gotten in the shower and told her that Diane had figured out who kidnapped Tyche and that she needed to get her ass downstairs. Rachel knew it was important, but she figured finishing her shower wouldn't hurt anyone. And instead of going downstairs to wait for her Nico decided to wait in Rachel's room while she finished.

When Rachel finally got out of the shower, spending a few more minutes than she needed to just to annoy Nico, she stepped out and wrapped a towel around herself. She didn't mind Nico hanging out inside her room, though she didn't really know how to deal with him after watching that stupid movie and ending up pressed against his side with her face buried in his chest. She wasn't embarrassed exactly, she just didn't know what to do with him.

They had basically spent an hour cuddling on the couch, watching a movie. And that made Rachel happier than it should have. She knew that she shouldn't have liked pressing that close to him and being able to hear his heartbeat in her ear, or feeling him playing with a lock of her hair; but she did. Rachel could clearly remember just how he smelled; like crushed leaves in autumn and something strangely spicy. Rachel sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror. Doing stuff like that was not going to help her get over Nico. But luckily enough for her, something like that probably wouldn't happen again. Rachel was surprised Nico let it happen in the first place.

Rachel pulled a brush out of the drawer under her sink and started dragging it through her wet and tangled hair. It took forever to brush her hair because it was so thick and curly, but Rachel was used to ripping hair off her scalp to make it manageable. She couldn't help it when her mind wandered back to sitting on the couch with Nico.

"Are you finally done now?" She heard Nico yell and Rachel ignored him. She had just realized that she didn't have any extra clothes in the bathroom with her and was going to have to walk back into her room, with Nico still in there, in nothing more than a thin towel.

Rachel chewed on her lip and debated whether it was worth it to make Nico get out of her room. He probably would make a big production out of being kicked out just so she could protect her modesty. She wasn't really embarrassed about him maybe seeing her almost naked, she just didn't want him to because there was good chance he would make all kinds of annoying comments about it for the next week. It would be better for her to just act like it was no big deal if he saw her in the towel. Maybe if she did he would leave it alone. But if Nico made fun of her in any way, she was going to kick his ass.

Rachel dried herself completely before stepping out of the bathroom, with her wet hair dripping and her towel secured around her chest. Nico didn't notice her at first – he was too busy looking through the drawers of the table next to her bed.

"Nico! Get the fuck away from my stuff!"

"Well maybe if you hadn't taken forever in the shower, I wouldn't have gotten bored and needed to amuse myself. What is this thing?" he said, not turning around.

Rachel stormed over to him. "It's an eyelash curler, dumbass," she said, ripping it out of his hands and pushing him away from her drawers. She hated it when people went through her stuff; she found it to be impossibly rude and not to mention, possibly embarrassing.

Rachel walked away from him and over to her dresser and started riffling through the fabric. She looked up in the mirror and found Nico staring at her, his eyes wide. Apparently he had noticed her almost naked state. Rachel turned around and looked at him. "What?"

Nico seemed to regain his senses and cleared his throat. "Nothing," he muttered, his voice strangely choked. He turned away from her and examined his nails. Rachel turned back to the dresser, feeling strangely light. She grinned at herself in the mirror, watching Nico's back. His shoulders were tense. He apparently hadn't expected her to walk out of the bathroom in only a towel. She felt giddy knowing he was acting this way because of her, that she had made him lose his composure, something that was hard to do.

Rachel pulled out a pair of panties and pulled them on without moving the towel and then did the same thing with a pair of sweatpants. She glanced over her shoulder at Nico. "Don't turn around," she said, making it sound like a threat.

She pulled out a bra and let the towel drop, and put the bra on as quickly as possible and then pulled a shirt over her head. It wouldn't have really mattered if Nico had turned around when she told him not to because he only would've seen her bare back, but she didn't want him to look at her while she was shirtless, even if he couldn't see her breasts.

Rachel looked back at Nico and almost laughed at how awkward he looked, with his back facing her and his eyes glued to his feet. Rachel had originally planned to just grab some clothes and go back into the bathroom, but she was glade she hadn't; this was way more fun. Making Nico uncomfortable was definitely something she would be doing more often if she could.

She walked over to Nico and tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped a little before turning around. He had a strange expression on his face that Rachel couldn't decipher but she shrugged it away. "Don't we have to go talk to Diane?"

"Uh…yeah."

"Then let's go," Rachel said and walked out of the room with Nico trailing behind her at a greater distance than usual. Rachel smiled to herself. Had he really been that affected by seeing her in a towel? Rachel liked the idea that he thought she was hot, though it also made her sad. Nothing would come of it, even if they both did find each other physically attractive. But it also made her wonder if he liked her the same way she liked him. She wondered if he liked more than just her body.

Rachel and Nico walked into the living room and found Diane sitting on the couch, looking excited.

Rachel sat down next to her and stuck her feet in Nico's lap when he took his place next to her on the couch. Rachel heard him sigh and she wiggled her bare toes in response. Nico pinched her pinky toe before looking around her at Diane.

"You said you found out who kidnapped your mom?" he asked her. "How?"

"Well, when I was out in the forest, I ran into a couple of telekhines –"Diane began to explain.

"What were telekhines doing in the forest in the middle of the day?" Nico interrupted.

"Probably the same thing all the other monsters have been trying to do," Rachel told him dryly.

Nico scowled at her. He seemed to have recovered from whatever was wrong with him earlier. "I meant, why telekhines? They hardly ever do things for others unless it involves creating weapons."

"Sure, that's what you meant, Nico. Sure it is."

Nico opened his mouth to snap at het, but Diane shushed him. "Shut up, Nico. As I was saying, I found two telekhines in the forest. And they were probably two of the stupidest monsters I have ever come across. After I killed the first one, the other got all scared and tried to act tough. While he was trying to scare me, the dumbass let slip who had sent them and who was holding my mom captive."

"Who?" Nico asked impatiently when she didn't go on.

"Someone called Chrysaor."

"Who is that?" Rachel asked.

"No idea. Maybe some minor god who wants to prove themselves?" Nico guessed.

"If it was a god who kidnapped Tyche, Zeus probably would have already figured out who had done it," Diane said.

"Zeus hadn't known when Ares was sort of working for Kronos or that he had his master bolt back when all that mess was going on," Rachel pointed out. "He missed a lot of things. Like he hadn't known who kidnapped Artemis that one time."

"Yeah, that's true," Diane mused. "It's probably not even a god who's doing all this. None of the monsters we've been seeing would work for an Olympian god, even if they were rebelling. It has to be some monster. Some strong monster. Nothing else could control that many empousai or dracanae."

"I wish we could call Chiron and ask him. He would know," Rachel sighed.

"Well, obviously we can't do that, Dare. Do you have anything? Any prophecies or visions we need to know about?" Nico asked in a distinctly unfriendly tone.

Rachel scowled at him, reacting to the implications and the challenge in his words. "How many times do I have to tell you, Nico?" It does not work like that."

"Maybe it should work like that," Nico snapped. "Maybe it does work like that and you just can't figure it out."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? What the hell is your problem, anyway?" Rachel demanded.

"My problem is you're a shitty Oracle and you have no reason to be here if you can't actually help us!" Nico snarled.

Rachel blinked. She heard Diane gasp quietly. Rachel knew her face was probably a mask of shock and hurt as she stared at Nico's angry face. Where had all of that come from? Rachel tried to come up with something to say but all she could manage was a whispered "What?"

"You heard me."

Rachel stood up, still staring at the cold expression on Nico's face, not really sure how to react to his sudden anger. She felt a stinging behind her eyes and willed herself not to cry, not in front of Nico when he was saying such horrible things. Rachel turned on her heel and practically ran back up the stairs, her tears clouding her eyes and making everything around her blurry.

When Rachel got to her room, she locked her door and fell onto her bed. She lay on her back, staring at the ceiling. She could hear Diane's voice from downstairs as she yelled at Nico and what sounded like a fist striking flesh. She hoped it was Diane hitting Nico and not the other way around. Rachel normally would've never thought Nico would hurt Diane, but then again she had also thought Nico would never have insulted her like that.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Rachel thought about what just happened and what Nico had said. Was he right? Was it her fault she hadn't even gotten a glimpse of anything useful since they got here? Was she an awful Oracle?

Rachel bit down on her lip hard enough to break the skin. She rolled over onto her stomach and pressed her face into the soft pillows that took up most of the space on her bed, tears soaking into the fabric of them. Rachel couldn't believe Nico had said that to her. He knew how she felt about being the Oracle, how proud of it she was. Even if he did truly believe she was a bad Oracle, why would he have said it? Rachel couldn't figure out why he had gotten so angry. Nothing she said should have set him off, unless he was that pissed off by her teasing. Maybe she should have left him alone after what happened before they went into the living room.

Rachel almost laughed at herself. She had actually thought there was a chance he could have feelings for her, actually believed that he might like her beyond wanting to see her naked. She had been dead wrong. Nico thought her only use on this quest was supplying visions she received and he apparently thought she couldn't even do that right. He thought she was a burden, that she was useless beyond being the vessel for Delphi to speak from. He didn't care about her at all.

Rachel curled on her side, moving her face to a less damp part of her pillow. Rachel had never had someone tell her she was a bad Oracle. Being the Oracle was one of only things she was truly proud of, along with her art. Rachel had always liked being the Oracle, even if some of the things required of her were annoying. It made her feel important, like she was doing something useful in the world, something that mattered. After being surrounded by demigods who did so much in life, Rachel had felt small and insignificant. And then Rachel became the Oracle. She was no longer just another mortal. She was as important as any of the half-bloods at camp, if not more so. And now she was told she was horrible at doing something she was destined to become by the guy she liked. It was a horrible feeling, made only worse by the knowledge that he only saw her as the Oracle and nothing more. She was used to people thinking of her that way, thinking the only part of her that mattered was the part that housed the Spirit of Delphi, but when Nico said it, it was ten times as worse. Rachel hadn't felt this awful since her father had told her she was a terrible artist and that she should quit and do something useful.

But when her father had said that to her, Rachel tried her best to prove to him that he was wrong. She spent weeks improving her art to prove him wrong. But she couldn't do that with Nico. She couldn't practice at being the Oracle. It was true that some Oracles were more sensitive to Delphi than others, but that couldn't be changed. Rachel's sensitivity to Delphi was set.

Rachel stayed on the bed, curled up under the covers, hot tears leaking out of her eyes while all the horrible and cruel things Nico, and anyone else, had ever said to her circulated her mind, refusing to be ignored or cast away. She felt tired, but couldn't sleep. Rachel watched dust moats caught in the sun's rays float around the room and tried to empty her mind.

Twice, someone came to her door and spent several minutes knocking. The first time Diane banged her fist against the door and called to her, trying to get some response. Rachel ignored her, not really wanting to talk. The second time Diane didn't say anything, just stood there and knocked for about 10 minutes before giving up.

Rachel knew she was acting like a heartbroken teenager from a shitty romance movie, but she felt like she had the right after what Nico had said, and what he had implied. She also knew it was not healthy to just lay there and wallow in self-pity, but she didn't feel like doing anything else. Rachel was still trying to come to terms with what had happened and what Nico had said.

But eventually, Rachel got tired of herself. She had never been good at just sitting around and thinking. She got out of bed and looked around her room. There was hardly anything in it because she hadn't brought much with her. The room seemed barren and impersonal. Rachel caught sight of herself in the mirror above her dresser and saw that her eyes were puffy and red from crying. She sighed and walked over to her desk and sat down. She pulled out her drawing pad and flipped to a clean page. Rachel hadn't brought her painting easel or canvas with her on the quest but she did have her sketchbook. The pages were thick enough to handle paint and not bleed onto other pages, but she could also draw on it with pencil or pens. It was one of the many reasons she loved the journal.

Rachel stared at the page, wondering what to paint. She knew it would be best for her to paint what she was feeling, to imagine she was pouring her emotions onto the blank page. It was what she had done as a child when she first began to paint and needed a way to express herself when her parents wouldn't listen to her. Doing that was what had made her a better artist. She had spent all her time painting and drawing with her emotions when she was trying to prove to her father that she could be a good artist. It had improved her artistic abilities and it had made her feel better about herself at the same time.

Rachel looked at the blank page and imagined that it wanted to be covered in paint, wanted her to make it into something beautiful. Rachel just couldn't decide what to make it into. She looked outside, towards the forest, hoping to find some inspiration there. Instead, she found Nico's familiar form disappearing into the cover of trees. She felt a wave of hurt and anger wash through her as he walked away. She shook her head and tried to banish Nico from her mind.

An idea came to her and Rachel started gathering the colors she needed. Dark blues, purples, greens, some silver and white. She was going to draw the forest outside the house, but make it into something sinister and beautiful, with the moon shining down on the darkness within the trees. That was kind of how Rachel was feeling at the moment – like she was looking in herself and finding something ugly that she was trying to ignore.

Rachel had barely started her painting before there was a knock at the door. This time, instead of ignoring Diane, Rachel put away her painting supplies and walked over to the locked door. The second it was open, Diane rushed through the threshold and threw her arms around Rachel. Diane pulled back after a second and considered her. She frowned at Rachel's still red eyes. "I punched him in the face for you," she told her.

Rachel smiled thinly. "Thanks, Diane."

"Don't mention it. I've been itching to punch him for a while now. Every time he decides to act like a complete dick. Maybe I hit him hard enough to fix his personality. Maybe now he will just be the sarcastic dumbass who is somewhat bearable instead of the jackass who everybody hates."

"I hope so. I actually like him when he wasn't being a complete douche."

"I know you do. I do, too. But I think you like him a little more than me."

"I don't want to talk about that," Rachel sighed, lying down on the bed. Rachel knew it was no use pretending that she didn't know what Diane was talking about. Diane already knew how she felt about Nico and there was no use pretending otherwise.

"Alright," Diane said, sitting down next to her. "Let's talk about something else. You don't believe him, right? Because what he said isn't true. You're not a shitty Oracle and you have way more purpose on this quest than just seeing the future."

"Thanks," Rachel muttered.

"And besides, it's not like it's your fault you haven't gotten anything. You don't control Delphi. She just isn't sending you anything. Or maybe she is and the whole magic block thing that's going on in this country is screwing with you."

Rachel frowned. "I hadn't thought about that."

"It could be true. Iris's power is being messed with and Delphi's isn't as strong as her. Maybe she's blocked from you."

"I hope that's true. It'll make me feel better knowing I can't do anything about it."

Diane nudged her leg with her foot. "Don't talk like that. It's not that big a deal. We can save my mom without any visions."

"Do you really think so?"

"Yeah. I mean, all we have to do is capture some more stupid monsters and get them to talk. Then we go bust down Chrysaor's door and rescue my mom and go back home."

"Somehow, I don't think it will be that easy."

"Well, that was the simplified version. Are you sure you're ok?" Diane asked her, looking concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just tired."

Diane didn't seem to believe her, but she let it drop. "Where do you think all of that came from anyway? What set him off?"

Rachel shrugged one shoulder. "I have no idea. Maybe because I was teasing him?"

"Nah, that wouldn't have pissed him off like that. It had to be something else. Maybe he's not telling us something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. But I don't think he was mad at you exactly. He just took it out on you. He was being deliberately cruel."

"You think so? You think he didn't mean all that?"

Diane shook her head. "No, he didn't mean it. He likes having you around, it's obvious. I think he was just trying to hurt you."

"Why though?" Rachel asked, sitting up.

"I don't know. All lot of people lash out at others when they're upset or angry. It could be anything. But you should have seen his face after you walked away. He looked pretty upset with himself."

"Really?" Rachel asked incredulously.

"Yup. I think that's why he left. So he wouldn't have to face you – and himself."

"He's coming back, right? He's not just quitting?" Rachel asked, alarmed at the thought of Nico giving up and going back home.

"He's gonna come back. He wouldn't jeopardize the entire quest just because he said something out of spite," Diane assured her. "The real question is whether he's going to apologize or not."

Rachel shook her head at the idea. "He won't. He has too much pride to apologize for anything. He's just going to act like nothing happened."

Diane scowled. She knew Rachel was right. "Well, don't go along with that. Make him apologize."

Rachel smiled slightly. "I'll do my best."

"What are you going to do anyway? When you see him again."

"I have no idea," she sighed. "Make him feel bad about it, I guess. Ignore him until he apologizes." Try not to burst into tears, she added silently.

"Good. Maybe he will actually apologize."

"Maybe," Rachel murmured. She didn't actually think Nico would apologize to her about what he said. He probably didn't think it was that big of a deal. But she didn't feel like disagreeing with Diane.

"Maybe together we can turn Nico into someone people actually want to be around. That would be nice."

"First we would have to get him to stop using anger as a first response to anything he doesn't like."

"Yeah. I wonder why he's like that. Why does he get angry at the most random things?"

"Defense mechanism?" Rachel guessed. "He's probably been using anger as his first defense since he was little. I mean, his sister died when he was ten and he lived on the street for years. He grew up angry."

Diane considered that. "That may be true, but that's no reason to be such a fucking tool all the time."

"He's not bad all the time. Just sometimes."

"He's a tool most of the time," Diane said stubbornly.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Diane sighed. "I'm tired of talking about him. Let's do something fun."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Something to make you feel better."

"I feel fine," Rachel lied.

"Bullshit. But I know something that can cheer you up."

"What?" Rachel asked suspiciously. Rachel had had experience with Diane's plans to cheer her up when she was upset.

"Let me do your hair."

"Do what with my hair?" Rachel narrowed her eyes at Diane.

"I don't know. Something fun. Maybe we can dye it purple," Diane grinned at her.

"How would dying my hair purple make me feel better?"

"Because purple hair would be awesome!"

"You're not dying my hair any color. I like being a ginger, thank you very much," Rachel told Diane, raising her hands to her head like she was trying to protect her hair from her.

Diane pouted. "Fine. We'll have a movie marathon then."

"Alright. You can pick. But nothing scary," Rachel called after Diane as she ran out of the room to go grab some DVDs.

Rachel got out of bed and pulled on her pajamas. She really wasn't in the mood to watch any movies, but she figured they might distract her from the thoughts still swirling around her mind. She couldn't get the cold expression Nico wore as he looked at her out of her mind.

Rachel curled back up under the covers. She flipped her still damp pillows onto their other sides so that she wasn't lying on her own tears.

* * *

 

Rachel was running through a strange corridor. The hallways seemed to be made of a mixture of metal and stone. There was sand all over the floor that stuck to her legs and shoes. Rachel kept running, somehow knowing where she needed to go, even though this place was completely unfamiliar to her. The corridor was cloaked in shadows, even though torches were hung on the walls in iron brackets at even intervals.

Rachel ran for what seemed like forever. Strangely, she didn't feel tired or out of breath or feel her muscles burn. She didn't stop until she was standing in front of a circular door made of dull metal that looked like Celestial Bronze. Rachel wondered where she was. She stood on her toes and pulled at the door's lever and it swung open, completely silent.

The room the door led to was pitch black. Rachel walked through the door into the darkness and ignored the door when it swung closed behind her. She had known it would. Rachel could feel more sand crunching under her tennis shoes. She walked through the blackness, heading to the place she had come to see. Rachel didn't know what would be there, only that it was important that she see it.

She walked through the suffocating darkness until she heard a voice on her right. Rachel froze, her head tilted in that direction. The voice was quiet, far away. Rachel turned her head in the direction to voice had come from, trying to find the source of the sound, but she could see nothing in the darkness. She walked towards the sound silently, not wanting to give away her position.

She walked until she saw a sliver of light. A door was cracked open, the bright light from inside the room penetrating the darkness that surrounded her. Rachel crept up close to the door, hoping she would not be noticed. Inside the room, she saw a tall man. He was dressed in traditional Greek armor that was completely gold. Even his sword was made of the precious metal. Rachel could feel the power of his armor and sword, both made out of Imperial Gold. She knew who this was. Chrysaor, the Golden Sword.

His back was to her. She could see nothing of him above the neck because of the gold helmet he wore. Rachel knew that if he were to turn towards her, she would see the snarling face of a gorgon fashioned into metal.

Rachel slunk down as far as she could in the shadows, trying to see and not be seen. She watched as an empousa walked up to him and put a hand on his arm. She leaned close and whispered something into the gold mask's ear. Apparently, it was not to his liking. Chrysaor shoved her away, snarling in Ancient Greek.

He turned to the table in front of him. It was littered with paper and maps. He glanced at the empousa. "Go fetch her," he commanded. The empousa immediately turned and walked out of the room through a door Rachel could not see. Chrysaor muttered under his breath. He had a deep and velvety voice, rich and exotic. He had the accent of a monster that had lived for many eons, something mortals often thought of as Middle Eastern.

After a few minutes, the empousa was back, this time with someone else. The empousa was holding a rope that seemed to be entwined with a strange blue metal. Rachel did not know what it was and that worried her. There were not many things she didn't know. She could not see who was at the end of the rope.

Chrysaor turned around and Rachel got a full view of his gold mask. It had curved tusks, the features carved into a permanent snarl and snakes curling around it as hair. It was impossible to see Chrysaor's true appearance beneath the heavy gold helmet.

"So, my dear, are you ready to help us yet?" he asked the unknown prisoner politely, but there was an underlying threat in his words. Something that promised violence and pain if the prisoner refused him. There was no response. Rachel tried to shift her body to see the prisoner, but it was no use. The angle of the door was too severe.

Chrysaor sighed dramatically at the prisoner's silence. "Very well. Take her to the cage. I will be there shortly." Rachel watched as the empousa moved back out of the room with the struggling prisoner. She waited for Chrysaor to move, to do something, but he only sighed again and followed the empousa out of the room.

Rachel straightened. She turned and started walking back the way she had come. She had come to this place for a reason. Rachel walked for a long time, the inky blackness wrapping around her like a heavy cloud. Rachel froze when the sudden sound of a whip snapping against skin broke the loaded silence of this place. The sound was close. Rachel walked forward cautiously, not wanting to be seen.

Rachel stopped just outside the circle of light emitting from the room below her. She was standing on a ledge above was appeared to be an arena filled with cages. Most of them were suspended in in the air and were empty. Only one was occupied by someone living. The others held rotting bodies and bleached bones.

Rachel edged closer to the light, wary of the ledge. It appeared that the rock floor had broken off, creating this opening to the arena. Rachel leaned slightly so that she could see the cage better. Chrysaor stood in front of it, his helmet speckled with golden ichor. The empousa stood close to him, watching with a bored expression. Chrysaor raised his whip and brought it down on the prone figure in front of him with another loud crack. Rachel watched as a deep wound was opened on the female prisoners back. Ichor ran down her back, pooling at her feet. The woman raised her head to look defiantly at Chrysaor. She showed no signs of distress, but Rachel knew that it was an act. She was in a great deal of pain and too stubborn to show it to her captor. Rachel could not see her features clearly, only the once long black hair that had been cut short and her bright blue eyes filled with an angry and determined fire. Chrysaor raised his whip and brought it down, cutting her face. The woman cried out in pain as she fell onto the hard ground, sand rubbing into the deep wounds of her back. Chrysaor laughed throatily before tilting his head back. Rachel had the distinct feeling that he was looking straight at her when he raised his whip and flicked it. This time it wasn't aimed at the woman at his feet; it was aimed at her. The whip seemed to grow in length as it flew towards her. Rachel had no time to move before a blinding pain exploded in her chest.

Rachel bolted upright in bed, her hands fumbling at her chest. Nothing, no wound, no blood. Rachel fell back against her pillows in relief. She felt fine, except for a strange burning throughout her body, hottest at the center of her chest but quickly fading. Rachel rubbed her face, wiping cold sweat away from her forehead and out of her eyes. She lay on her back for a moment, trying to get her breathing back to normal.

How ironic. She had a vision in the form of a dream on the same day she had been told she was shitty Oracle. Maybe this was Delphi's way of repaying her for her silence.

"Rachel, are you okay?"

Rachel shrieked at the sudden voice. She grabbed her dagger from under her pillow and lunged toward the voice. Before she could cut anyone, two large hands grabbed her, one holding her wrist, the other holding her shoulder. "Holy shit, calm down! It's just me!"

"NICO! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? WHY ARE YOU IN MY ROOM?"

"Shhh! Stop screaming at me. I don't want Diane coming in here."

Rachel ripped herself out of his hands. "You have exactly ten seconds to explain to why you are in my room, watching me sleep before I cut your balls off," she hissed at him vehemently.

"Only ten? That seems harsh."

"Five," Rachel snarled.

"Ok, ok! I came to apologize. And I wasn't watching you sleep. I only got here like a minute before you tried to stab me. You know, when you said you were going to start stabbing at me whenever I scared you, I didn't actually think you were serious."

Rachel blinked, completely nonplussed. He was actually here to apologize to her?

"Are you still going to castrate me?" Nico asked when she didn't say anything.

"I'm still thinking about it," she snapped at him. While she may have been more hurt than angry earlier when she was talking to Diane, at the moment, all she felt was rage.

"If I get on my knees and beg for your forgiveness with you put the knife away?"

"I might consider only cutting off one if you do that."

"I should've waiting until morning to do this," Nico muttered, more to himself than to Rachel.

"You think?" Rachel growled, leaning over to turn on her lamp, the soft light making it easier to see him though shadows still hung around the room. Rachel shuddered slightly, thinking of the heavy darkness in her dream. She looked over at Nico who was blinking at the sudden light. Rachel felt a slight feeling of satisfaction when she saw the black eye Diane had given him.

"Don't look so happy," Nico grouched at her. He was sitting cross legged at the foot of her bed, wearing baggy sweatpants and a gray tank top that showed off his muscular chest. Rachel forced herself to not focus on his arms. How was she supposed to stay mad at him if she couldn't stop drooling over his muscles?

"Don't tell me what to do. Now, don't you have something you want to say?"

Nico looked down at Rachel's sheets and absently picked at them. He didn't say anything for a few minutes but Rachel didn't push him. He probably didn't have much practice with apologizing to people. And she wanted to hear what he had to say, even though she had her mind set on kicking him out of her room with no forgiveness the second he finished.

"I really am sorry about what I said. I was a jackass," he muttered finally, not meeting her eyes. "I wish I hadn't said any of that. It was stupid and cruel. I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean any of it, not one word."

"Then why did you say it?" Rachel asked softly, dropping the pissed off attitude. She could see that he actually felt bad for what he had said. Rachel felt her anger ebbing away.

Nico glanced up at her and looked down again. He furrowed his brow. "I don't know. I was mad, but not mad at you. Not mad at anyone really. Just mad. I took it out on you. And I shouldn't have."

"Yeah, you shouldn't have. That hurt, Nico, it really did. More than you probably think it did," Rachel told him, biting her lip. He looked so vulnerable right now. It wasn't hard for Rachel to imagine what he must have looked like as a 10 year old kid who just found out he lost his sister, the only person in his life that he loved.

Nico looked up at her, his expression pained. "I didn't mean any of it, Rachel, I swear I didn't. I don't think you're a bad Oracle or that being the Oracle is the only reason you should be on the quest. I like being around you. I like being your friend. I felt horrible after I realized what I said. I wish I could take it all back."

"But you can't."

"No," Nico agreed quietly, "I can't." He laughed suddenly, but it wasn't a humorous laugh. It was bitter and dark and it made Rachel shudder. "God, I always do this. Every time I get close to anyone, I always fuck it up somehow."

"That's not true. You've been friends with Percy for years."

"Yeah, well, me and Percy's relationship isn't perfect. I hated him for a while, when I first ran away. Still do, sometimes."

"Why?" Rachel was looking at Nico with new eyes. She had never seen him like this before. He looked so vulnerable and hurt, and Rachel had the strongest urge to just wrap her arms around him.

Nico ran a hand through his hair, making it even messier than it had been already. "I blamed him for my sister's death. I knew it wasn't his fault, but I needed someone to blame for it. And Percy was the best target. Sometimes those feelings come back, even though I know they're wrong. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't anybody's," he said. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself of it more than her.

Rachel didn't know what to say to that. She looked at Nico, watching his face as he played with the hem of his pants. Rachel had noticed he did that a lot. Whenever he was uncomfortable or in a situation he didn't entirely understand he was always messing with something or constantly moving.

Nico looked up at her suddenly. "Please tell me you're not mad at me still," he said, his tone almost pleading.

Rachel wondered for a second if all of this was an act before dismissing the thought. Nico wouldn't bring up his sister's death just to get in her good graces again. He hardly ever discussed her and when he did, he never talked about her death. She was ashamed she even had thought he might be playing her.

"I'm not mad. Not anymore, anyway."

"But I'm not completely forgiven, am I?" he said, with a sad smile. Rachel said nothing. It was true. She wasn't angry with him, but she was still hurt. But she would get over it soon; she always did.

Nico sighed and ran his hand through his hair again. He looked miserable. "I really wish I could go back and change that." Nico laughed at himself. "Gods, that was corny."

"I'll get over it, Nico. Don't worry about it," Rachel told him.

"You shouldn't have to get over anything. I shouldn't have said any of that in the first place. And you definitely shouldn't have spent the afternoon locked in your room crying," Nico said, his voice catching slightly at the word crying.

"Who said I was crying?" Rachel asked, trying to sound indignant.

"When you didn't answer the door I decided to…check on you."

Rachel stared at him. "Do you shadow travel in here often?"

"No! First time, I swear. And I was completely ready to shield my eyes in case you were naked."

Rachel shook her head at him, deciding to forget about that for now. She would have to find a way to keep him from doing that. "I thought it was Diane who came to the door."

Nico shrugged. "I didn't expect you to answer. But I wanted to try. I'm kinda glad you didn't answer though. I'm not sure what I would have said."

They fell silent for a moment. Rachel looked at the sky outside her window and looked at the stars. They looked different here than they did in New York. They were easier to see, these starts, without the orange glow of the city and the patterns and constellations she was so used to were shifted and changed.

Rachel looked back at Nico and found him watching her. She blushed when she caught him staring, but he didn't look away. Suddenly the silence between them seemed uncomfortably charged with something Rachel couldn't identify. She searched her mind for something to say that wouldn't make her seem like a loser.

Nico beat her to it. "Why were you so upset earlier? I mean, I know what I said was cruel, but why exactly were you so hurt?"

Rachel scrunched her eyebrows together, trying to figure out the best way to explain it. "Because…being the Oracle is one of the things I am really proud of. It makes me feel like I'm doing something good in the world, like I'm important. It makes me feel like when I die, people will remember me, even if it's only someone coming across my name when they look up past Oracles. Being the Oracle is one of the things I think is best about me."

Nico stared at her before dropping his gaze. "I'm so sorry," he told her softly, sounding so sincere that Rachel's eyes pricked.

"It's ok, Nico."

"No," he shook his head, "it isn't."

"Nico," Rachel sighed, "You already apologized. Don't feel bad. I'll get over it. I know you didn't mean it. It only hurt because I thought you actually thought that about me."

"Why are you trying to comfort me? This should be the other way around."

"I can't help it. I'm empathetic."

"Well, stop it."

"I'll try my best," Rachel told him sarcastically.

Nico yawned and rubbed his eyes. He apparently had forgotten the black eye, because he winced the second his hand touched the bruise. "Diane really packs a punch, doesn't she?"

Rachel frowned at him. He didn't seem to mind the fact that Diane had given him a black eye. Nico noticed her expression. "I deserved it," he shrugged.

"True. But still. We don't want to keep that pretty face of yours all messed up," Rachel told him as she got out of bed and walked over to her backpack that was sitting on her desk. She pulled out a canteen on nectar and handed it to Nico. He watched her over the rim of it as he took a drink.

"Are you not wearing pants?" he asked, handing it back to her.

"No," she said, looking away and blushing. She was dressed in what she usually wore to sleep. An oversized shirt and no bottoms.

"Are you at least wearing underwear?"

"Of course I am, pervert." Rachel got back into bed and kicked the blankets up around her so that Nico couldn't see her bare legs.

Nico grinned at her, flashing his rarely seen dimples. "Bet you're not wearing a bra either."

Rachel threw a pillow at him, which he caught easily. He smiled down at her before his expression sobered again. He frowned at the pillow in his hands, seeing the watery makeup stain on the back.

"Rachel. How can I make this up to you?"

"You don't have to do anything, Nico. You already apologized. I forgave you. It's okay."

Nico shook his head like the stubborn idiot he was. "I still feel horrible about it. I can't even believe I said all that to you, that I hurt your feelings! I made you cry for gods' sake," he said, head bent and one long finger tracing the stain on her pillow, the picture of guilt. Rachel pulled it out of his hands. He looked back at her. "I can't get over it, Rachel. Not with you hurting because of me."

"Well, there is one thing you can tell me. What made you so mad in the first place?"

Rachel immediately wished she hadn't asked that when she saw the closed expression on his face. He stared at Rachel's sheets for a long time before answering her. "When you mentioned Artemis being kidnapped it reminded me of my sister. It made me think that if Zeus had been able to figure out who had taken her, Bianca wouldn't have had to go and look for her. She wouldn't have died."

Rachel froze. She had forgotten Artemis's rescue was the quest where Bianca had lost her life. "Nico…I-"

Nico shook his head. "Don't apologize. You didn't do anything. It was just me being overly sensitive. I was already thinking about her when you said it. I shouldn't have gotten all torn up over it anyway."

Rachel didn't know what to say. She knew Bianca's death had been horrible for Nico, but she realized now that she couldn't even begin to imagine the loss he felt when she died. That he still felt.

Rachel reached over and touched the back of his hand lightly. He grabbed her fingers and squeezed them lightly before letting go. He seemed to understand what she wanted to say even though she couldn't say it. "It's ok, Rachel. Really. Right now, I'm more worried about you. I feel so awful about what I said."

"I feel better, Nico. I really do. I forgave you, now forgive yourself already."

"You forgive people too easily," he muttered.

"And you hold onto things you shouldn't for too long."

Nico stared at her. He didn't say anything but he scooted closer to her, close enough so that she could feel his body heat and smell the scent of his skin. "You're right," he whispered. "I do. I can't ever let go of painful things."

Rachel turned to face him fully, a little uneasy about how close they were. Her heart was beating faster than normal and she could almost feel Nico's hand next to her leg. "Maybe you should work on that."

Nico smirked a little. "Maybe I will. It's just hard, knowing that I made you cry. I feel like the biggest douche in the world."

"You're hardly the first person to ever have made me cry, Nico. It's not like it's that hard to do. And I can think of a lot more people worse than you. Well, when you're having a good day. The other day however…"

Nico smiled. He shifted even closer. "That makes me feel so much better. Thanks, Dare."

"Don't mention it, di Angelo. Now could you back up a little? You're in my personal space."

"Don't pretend you don't like it," Nico teased.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "You're definitely back to normal," she said, "I'm not sure I like that. You're cute when you're begging for forgiveness. You should –"Rachel was cut off by Nico suddenly pressing his lips against hers.

Rachel froze for a second, completely caught off guard, before she relaxed and her eyes fluttered closed. Nico kissed her gently, something Rachel wouldn't have thought him capable of. He seemed the type to be a rough kisser. Rachel sighed into his mouth, parting her lips slightly. She reached up and wrapped her hands around his neck, pressing herself closer to him.

She felt Nico wrap one arm around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. His other hand came around to cup her cheek. She felt the tip of his tongue slid against her lips and she made a soft sound in the back of her throat. Nico responded by kissing her more deeply, making Rachel's head spin.

What had started out as a slow and gentle kiss was quickly turning more passionate. Rachel wrapped her hands in Nico's thick hair, feeling the soft texture of it. He forced her mouth open even more, the kiss deepening and their tongues twining together. Nico pulled her so close against him she was sure he could feel her heart hammering into her rib cage.

Without warning, Nico twisted them both so that Rachel was lying on her back against the pillows and Nico was on top of her, his warm weight pressing down against her body. She could feel him everywhere, pressed against every inch of her body. But she wanted him closer. She wrapped her legs around his waist pulling his hips against hers, pressing against him. She felt him harden against her and she shivered with pleasure at the feeling. Nico groaned into her mouth, his hands fisting into her hair as he grinded against her lightly.

Rachel slipped on of her hands underneath Nico's tight shirt, feeling the hard muscles of his stomach and chest. She smiled through the kiss. This was more prefect than she could have ever imagined. Nico pulled away for just a second so that he could pull the tank top off. Before Rachel could even register the sound of his shirt hitting the floor, Nico's lips were back against hers.

He was kissing her like he had been waiting for the chance to touch her for weeks. She could feel the emotions pouring out of him and kissed him back just as passionately. She curled her hand around his upper arm while his fingers slipped underneath her shirt. She groaned when she felt his fingers graze her breasts. But before she could fully enjoy the feeling, he was gone.

Rachel blinked up at her dark ceiling, panting slightly. Her body tingled and she felt a longing deep in her stomach. She looked around and saw Nico sitting next to her on the bed, not looking at her and biting his lip. Looking down, she saw the bulge in his pants and blushed. She sat up and fixed her shirt.

"Um…" she started, not really sure what to say. "That was…interesting."

Nico chuckled, but it sounded strangled. "You could say that." His voice was deeper than usual and had a husky quality to it that Rachel had never heard.

Rachel glanced down at his lap and looked away just as quickly. Nico seemed to notice and grabbed a pillow to hide his erection. Rachel could see his blush in the semi-darkness of her room.

There was an extremely awkward silence before Nico cleared his throat. "Do you think Apollo is going to come down and smite me now?"

Rachel smiled. "He hasn't yet, so probably not."

"Good. I'd rather not end up as a pile of ashes."

"Not in my bed, you won't."

"Yeah, I promised I would save that for Diane's."

They were quiet for another moment. Rachel was still trying to process what had just happened. Nico had kissed her! And she had kissed him back…well, she had done more than just kiss him back. And he had done more than just kiss too, so it wasn't just her who had been excited. Rachel was surprised to find that she had wanted to go even further. She wished Nico hadn't pulled away, even though she knew it was best that he did.

"Are…we going to talk about it?" Rachel asked Nico warily.

"Do we have to?"

"Yes," Rachel sighed. "We do. That…shouldn't have happened. Not that I didn't like it, I mean, it was enjoyable –"

"Just go ahead and say it. My kissing prowess is unmatched by any other mortal." Rachel could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Did you just say "kissing prowess"?

"It's an accurate term."

"Whatever. But we still need to talk about what just happened."

"Yeah…I guess we do," Nico rubbed his face, careful not to touch his black eye. The bruise was better than it had been before, thanks to the nectar, but it was still there. "You're right, I shouldn't have kissed you. I guess I just couldn't help myself. I promise I won't do it again."

Rachel was disappointed when he said that, but she knew it would be for the best if he didn't touch her like that again. She was more than a little pleased at the fact that he had phrased it as "I just couldn't help myself" and that just proved they needed to keep their hands to themselves from now on, before this go too far. Rachel was surprised Apollo hadn't shown up the second he even thought about kissing her and blasted him into oblivion. But one good thing did come out of the kiss – other than the kiss itself. Now Rachel knew exactly how he felt about her – the same way she felt about him. "Yeah, that would probably be best. Let's just forget about it?" Rachel offered.

"Good idea. I don't want to tempt Apollo too much."

Rachel laughed. She looked over at him again, glancing at the pillow on his lap. "You under control now?"

"Uh…yeah. Sort of. Where did my shirt go?" Nico murmured, looking around.

"I don't know. You were the one who threw it across the room."

Rachel could see Nico roll his eyes at her. He hopped off the bed and walked around her room, searching for his shirt. When he finally found it and pulled it on, breaking Rachel's staring contest with his back, he stood there awkwardly, watching her.

Rachel sighed and then smiled at him. "You can sleep here if you want. I don't mind. As long as you keep your hands to yourself," she added.

Nico smirked at her as he climbed back into her bed. "I think you're the one we need to worry about getting all grabby."

Rachel smacked his arm, making him laugh. She reached over and flipped the lamp off. Glancing at the clock, she groaned mentally. It was 3 in the morning already.

Rachel was conscious of Nico getting comfortable next to her. She wondered what she was doing, letting him sleep in her bed. It was stupid, tempting herself and Nico like that. But she wasn't ready to let him go yet. Rachel curled up, facing Nico and yawned. She was tired.

"Goodnight, Rachel," Nico murmured next to her.

"'Night, Nico," she replied. Rachel pulled her blanket up to her chin. She was glad she was as tired as she was or else she would have never fallen asleep with Nico lying next to her. But luckily for her, it only took a few minutes for her to drift off. Before she fell asleep, she felt Nico brush his fingers across her cheek and she felt a rush of warmth wash through her body. She smiled at the feeling before closing her eyes and falling asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

Chapter Seven:

Nico forced his eyes open and blinked in the darkness. He could tell it was way too early for him to be awake. He stared at the ceiling, confused for a moment as to where he was at. He tried to raise his arm to rub his eyes, but found it trapped. He looked over and saw Rachel curled up against him with his arm wrapped around her and her head resting against his chest. Nico stared at her face, focusing on the details. She was so close to him he could see every detail of her face. His eyes lingered on her lips and he remembered how soft they had felt against his.

Nico brushed hair away from her face and sighed. Last night was going to be a problem in the future. Nico hadn't planned to kiss her, but apparently he always had to do things that he shouldn't and that would most likely cause him some kind of pain. Now that he knew what it felt like to kiss Rachel, to feel her body underneath his, to hear her groan when he touched her, he would never get over her. Nico sighed again and continued to watch Rachel's sleeping face. She looked so peaceful in the dark room. Nico knew that if she woke up right now and found him staring at her while she was asleep she would probably hit him and call him a creep but he didn't really care. It was easier to just look at her and ignore everything around him than actually think about all of his emotional problems.

Nico shifted on the bed, getting a little more comfortable and trying to not disturb Rachel. Now that he was awake, her weight on his arm was uncomfortable. He wondered how some guys could stand their girlfriends sleeping on them like that for the entire night. Nico settled down in the bed and rubbed his face with his free hand.

Nico was surprised at himself. He felt at ease with Rachel at the moment, which usually was not the case with girls. Usually when they wanted to get all snuggly, Nico got really freaked out and uncomfortable for no apparent reason. Even he didn't know why he didn't like to be that close to a girl, even after they had slept together. He just didn't like the feeling of intimacy, but with Rachel he didn't mind it at all. In fact, he liked it. Nico liked being close to her and holding her body close to his.

Rachel muttered something in her sleep and one of her hands moved down and curled around his hip. Nico watched her eyes move under closed eyelids. It made him think of last night when he had first entered her room. She had been curled up in a tight ball with her blankets tossed around her. Even though Nico had told her he hadn't been watching her sleep, he had, just for a moment. She had looked so vulnerable and young, completely opposite from how she looked awake.

He had just been about to wake her up when she had taken him by surprise by practically jumping out of bed, gasping for breath. Nico frowned to himself. He hadn't asked her what she had been dreaming about last night. It had completely slipped his mind. Which was understandable, his forgetting about her nightmare, when Rachel came at him with a knife. But the dream must have been pretty bad for her to wake up like that.

Rachel moved again and smiled a little. Whatever she was dreaming about now, it was obviously completely opposite of last night's dream. Nico yawned and looked at Rachel's bedside table. It was eight in the morning. Nico leaned back against the pillows, absently twirling a lock of Rachel's hair around his finger. He was tired but he couldn't fall back asleep.

Nico knew it would be best if he snuck out of Rachel's room without her waking up and act like last night never happened. But that would probably hurt Rachel's feelings and didn't want to hurt her again, especially not the day after what just happened. And he wasn't quite ready to leave her. He was warm and comfortable and didn't want to sneak out of her room like some douchebag who didn't want to deal with his one night stand. He didn't want to act like he was ashamed to have been in Rachel's room in the first place.

At that thought, Nico no longer felt so relaxed. He wasn't ashamed at having spent the night in Rachel's room but he was ashamed about the circumstances that had caused him visit her the night before. Even though Rachel had forgiven him for what he had done, he hadn't and most likely wouldn't forgive himself, at least for a while. Nico didn't even understand how Rachel had forgiven him. What he said to her was cruel in every way and completely uncalled for. She hadn't done anything and he had insulted her with everything he had. He had wanted to hurt her for no good reason.

Nico still didn't understand why he had lashed out like that. Sure, he had been upset after being reminded of Bianca's death, but he didn't understand why he had chosen to yell at Rachel instead of sulk in silence like he usually did. Maybe it had been the way she said it, making it sound so nonchalant that had caused him to react the way he did. Usually when people brought it up, it was with hushed and careful tones, like they knew he would be upset and didn't want to set him off.

But it still didn't matter what exactly had pissed him off so much. It hadn't been Rachel's fault. She hadn't deliberately brought up his sister; she would never do that to him. Nico was the one who picked the fight that ended with Rachel crying in her room.

Nico closed his eyes and felt shame wash over him as Rachel's face right after he snarled at her swam into his mind's eye. He couldn't get it out of his head, the look of shock and hurt on her face with tears barely held back.

Rachel was right about him though. Nico held on to things for too long. Maybe that was part of his fatal flaw, but all he knew was that he couldn't let go of things, especially things that were painful to think about. Things that made him happy he remembered but he never dwelled on them the way he did with other things. He still hadn't gotten over Bianca's death, even after ten years. Nico knew he needed to stop doing that and get over the pain. It was unhealthy to dwell and would probably destroy him one day. He just didn't know how to let go.

Nico pushed the thoughts out of his mind. It was not the time to try and change his entire lifestyle and way of thinking about life. Reinventing himself could wait until after they rescued Tyche. And wallowing in self-pity could wait too.

Rachel stretched against him. Nico moved, giving her a little space and looking down at her. He watched her open her bright green eyes. Rachel blinked up at him in confusion before she remembered. Nico held his breath while he waited for her reaction to waking up with him leaning over her.

"Nice hair," she smiled up at him, her voice rough with sleep.

Nico smirked, relieved that she wasn't mad. He wasn't sure how she was going to feel about Nico spending the night in her room, even though she had been the one to invite him to stay with her. "You too, Dare," he said.

"The only reason my hair is messed up is because you can't seem to keep your hands out of it. Yours looks like a bird made its nest in there."

Nico pushed his fingers into her tangled curls and wrapped her hair around his hand, keeping Rachel's head still. She pushed at him, but she was laughing. Nico grinned at her and played with her bangs with his other hand, flipping the strands into her eyes to annoy her.

Rachel reached up and gently pressed a finger to his cheek. "Your dimples are adorable," she told him, smiling mischievously.

"Shut up, Dare," Nico said in a mock-annoyed tone, pulling away from her. Rachel laughed again and sat up. Her shirt was bunched up around her stomach, giving Nico a perfect view of her lacy underwear. Rachel blushed and smacked his arm when she noticed him staring. She pulled the blankets around her legs and fixed her shirt.

"Stop being a perv, Nico," she said, her cheeks still tinted red.

"I'm twenty years old. Being a perv is in the description."

"That's a terrible excuse and you know it."

Nico shrugged one shoulder. "I tried." He grinned at her, knowing she wasn't actually mad at him.

"And you failed. No more staring."

"If I'm not allowed to stare, can you put some pants on? Your legs are very distracting."

"If my legs are distracting, don't look at them," she said, but rolled out of bed anyway. Nico's eyes dropped to her ass where her shirt had ridden up again, exposing her hot pink underwear again.

"Didn't I tell you to stop staring?" Rachel demanded, not even turning around and pulling her shirt down to cover herself again.

"I wasn't!" Nico tried to make himself sound offended by the accusation.

Rachel looked at him over her shoulder and gave him a "sure you weren't" look. Nico watched her as she pulled on a pair of shorts that still couldn't be seen under her oversize shirt. They didn't really help him keep his eyes off of her.

Nico stood up and stretched. He figured it was probably time for him to leave. Rachel seemed to be thinking the same. "Get out. I want to take a shower."

"Can I join you?" Nico asked her, ginning playfully. He wanted to make her blush again. He loved it when she turned as red as her hair and it was pretty easy to get her to do that.

Rachel blushed furiously and pushed him out of the room. "I'm just trying to save water! Shows how much you care about the environment!" Nico called when she shut the door in his face. He heard something hit the door, probably a pillow, and Rachel's voice telling him to go away. Nico laughed out loud and walked into his room across from hers. He marveled at Rachel's ability to make him feel better even when he was in the worst of moods.

Nico heard a door slam somewhere in the house and immediately sobered. Diane. He would have to face her today. And she wouldn't be as forgiving as Rachel was. Not that Nico didn't deserve her anger; he knew he did.

Nico pulled his shirt over his head and threw it on the floor, deciding to prolong the inevitable as long as possible by taking a shower. He stripped down as he walking into the bathroom, leaving a trail of clothes behind him. Nico set the shower on the highest temperature he could handle. Before he stepped in he caught sight of his face in the fogging mirror. His black eye was completely gone.

* * *

 

Nico walked downstairs, freshly showered and with wet hair dripping in his eyes. He descended slowly, not wanting to face Diane but knowing he would have to eventually. He couldn't hide in his room forever. He had already walked past Diane's floor and made sure she wasn't in her room. She was definitely downstairs, making breakfast if Nico's nose was right. He could smell bacon and eggs and wondered if facing Diane was worth the food.

Nico reached the bottom and hesitated. He had a feeling Diane would not take kindly to him showing up for breakfast like nothing had happened. And even less kindly to the fact that Rachel had already forgiven him.

If it had been any other person waiting for him, Nico would already have gone into the kitchen and gotten breakfast. But it was Diane who was waiting for him. Nico hadn't forgotten how easily she had kicked his ass when he first met her. And she hadn't actually been mad at him then.

Nico decided he had spent enough time acting like a coward and that it was time for him to grow some balls. He walked into the kitchen, preparing himself for Diane's wrath.

The second he entered the room, Diane turned around. She took one look at his black eye free face and scowled angrily. Before she could do or say anything, Nico raised his hands in a sign of surrender. "Before you hurt me, I apologized to her. And she did forgive me."

That only made Diane's scowl angrier. "She forgives too easily," she snapped.

"I agree. And I feel awful about what I said. And I do mean that."

"I don't care. She may have forgiven you, asshole, but I sure as hell haven't. If it weren't for this quest, I would have already kicked your sorry ass out of the fucking house."

Nico fought down the urge to say something stupid. It was not a good idea to mess with Diane when she already mad at him. He was surprised she hadn't done worse to him already – he had been expecting more than insults and a threat. "Alright, ok," he said. "Can you at least wait until we finish this quest for you maim me?"

"Fine, I'll wait. But only for my mom's sake," Diane shoved past him but paused. "One more thing." She turned toward him and before he could do anything, she punched him hard in the face. Nico fell back a little at the force. Diane was small but she was strong. When he straightened he watched as Diane walked out of the kitchen without a backward glance or another word.

Nico turned to the fridge and checked his appearance in the shiny metal. In the distorted refection, Nico could see a bruise already forming under his eye. He sighed. Diane was going to make sure he had a black eye no matter how many times she had to punch him to keep it there. Or maybe she had just wanted to punch him again. It was probably a little of both.

Nico looked away from the fridge and walked over to the stove where breakfast was waiting. Diane must have just made it, though Nico doubted she had planned for any to be for him. Nico pulled a plate out of the cabinet above him and loaded it with eggs, bacon, sausage and hash browns. His stomach growled just at the sight of the food. He hadn't had lunch or dinner the day before.

Nico sat down at the counter next to the stove. He didn't know where Diane went but she wasn't in the kitchen and Nico didn't want to make an appearance and have his other eye blackened. One was annoying enough.

Nico ate quietly for several minutes before Rachel appeared in the kitchen. She was wearing jeans with paint on the knees and hem and a shirt from some random museum in Brooklyn. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, a couple of damp strands stuck to her neck and cheeks. For a moment, all Nico could do was stare. She had done nothing remarkable with her appearance but Nico thought she had never looked more beautiful. Nico didn't know what it was, but she looked breathtaking.

As Nico stared at her, his mind wandered to last night. He thought about the way Rachel's skin felt under his fingers, the way she moved against him, how soft her lips were. Nico felt a sudden urge to go over to Rachel and wrap his arms around her waist, pull her close, and kiss her for a long time.

Nico shook himself and turned his gaze to his plate. He couldn't think like that. Nico and Rachel's relationship was staying strictly platonic; they had agreed on that last night. And Nico was going try and keep it that way, whether he wanted to or not. Thinking about last night was only going to make it harder for him to be around her and keep her at arm's length. He had already gone too far with her – he couldn't afford to tempt himself further.

Rachel hadn't noticed Nico's dilemma, or if she had, she was ignoring it. She sat down on the bar stool next to him. She looked at his plate, taking in the pile of food still on it. "Nico, if you keep eating like that you'll end up weighing like 300 pounds."

"No I won't. All this food turns into muscle," he tried to joke, not taking his eyes off of his plate.

"Maybe now it does, but it won't in ten years."

"We'll see about that. You know if we still talk in ten years."

Rachel looked at him strangely. "Why are you in such a bad mood? And what happened to your eye?"

Nico shrugged but didn't answer. He could tell her about Diane punching him, no problem but if he answered one question he would have to answer the other, which he just couldn't do. He couldn't tell Rachel about what he was feeling at the moment, mostly because he had no idea what exactly he was feeling.

Nico had just realized how exactly how he felt about staying in a strictly platonic relationship with Rachel. And it definitely wasn't a good feeling. He had just realized how much he wanted to be able to kiss Rachel whenever he wanted and spend time with her and not have to worry about going too far with her. Nico hadn't realized how much he wanted to be in an actual relationship with her until she walked into the kitchen and he actually thought about it.

What a great time to realize how he felt about her. Right in the middle of a conversation with the girl those feelings were centered around.

"Did Diane do that?" Rachel pressed when he didn't say anything.

"Yeah," Nico shrugged, trying to keep his mind focused on her words and not the emotions rolling through him.

"Stop acting like it's not a big deal," Rachel scolded him. She grabbed his chin and pulled his face towards her so that she could inspect the barely formed bruise up close. She was close enough to him that he could feel her breath on his mouth, making Nico shiver slightly. Nico's eyes dropped to Rachel's full lips. Without thinking he leaned forward and kissed her softly.

Rachel leaning into him, kissing him back just as softly. The hand that was holding Nico's chin moved down to his neck. Nico put on hand on her hip and cupped her cheek with the other, pulling her as close as he could with her sitting on the other stool. Rachel parted her lips slightly and sighed into his mouth. So much for friends only, Nico thought to himself.

Rachel pulled back a little. "Nico," she murmured, her lips brushing against his.

"Sorry," he whispered back. He shouldn't have kissed her, he knew that, and he should pull away but he didn't. All Nico wanted to do was pull her closer and keep her in his arms. But instead, he rested his forehead against hers and rubbed her cheek with his thumb.

"We can't keep doing this," Rachel told him quietly.

"I know," Nico sighed. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers again before pulling back anyway. "I just couldn't help it. Or that."

"You've said that before. I know I'm irresistible but…"

Nico chuckled. He reached over and pulled Rachel into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head against his shoulder. "That was the last time, I promise," Nico said.

"You said that before too."

"One kiss wasn't enough. But this time I swear, no more."

"I wish it didn't have to be like this," Rachel whispered against Nico's collarbone, so quietly Nico wasn't sure if he was meant to hear.

"I know. Me too," Nico told her. They sat in silence for a moment, Nico trailing a finger up and down Rachel's spine. She shivered against him and Nico ginned. Eventually, Rachel sighed and sat up. "This has to be the last time this happens."

Nico nodded. "I'll be good."

And Nico would try, even though it would be hard. He knew he was in too far to just get over it. He needed time to get over his feelings for Rachel; it wasn't just going to happen. But he could do his best to ignore them. He was good at not thinking about things that he didn't want to think about. He had been ever since Bianca died.

It was probably for the best that he and Rachel couldn't be together. Even if she wasn't the Oracle and there was nothing keeping them away from each other, it probably still would've ended badly. Whether it was because Nico was awful at serious relationships or the fact that almost everyone he got close to ended up getting hurt in some way, it would've ended badly. Something would've happened and Nico would have lost Rachel. He would have said something that she couldn't forgive or something even worse. That seemed to happen with all the girls he tried to have a relationship with, or at least a serious one. Between his mouth running at the worst times, monsters attacking him all the time, and his other personal issues, Nico could never keep a girlfriend. Rachel would've been no different.

Rachel smiled ruefully. "No you won't."

Nico laughed a little, despite the solemn atmosphere. "Ok, I'll do my best to be good," he amended.

"Better," Rachel said as she slid off of his lap and sat back down on her stool. She picked at her uneaten food before frowning at Nico. "My food's cold. It's your fault."

"It was worth it and you know it," Nico teased

Rachel rolled her eyes and started eating her cold breakfast. They both ate in silence, though it wasn't awkward. For a while the only sound was made when Rachel flicked Nico's hands when he tried to steal food off of her plate.

"Stop it, Nico!"

"What? You weren't going to eat it."

"Yes I was! Eat your own food, would you?"

"I already finished my breakfast."

"Then go get some more food. Food that isn't mine!"

"But this is easier." He reached over and plucked a piece of bacon off her plate despite her best efforts to bat his hands away. He stuffed it into his mouth and winked at her.

Rachel made an impatient noise and shoved her plate towards him. Nico grinned victoriously. "I'm going to go find Diane," she told him as she walked out of the kitchen.

Nico watched her go, chewing on her breakfast, thoughts swirling in his head and his good mood draining out of him. He wasn't happy about their decision to keep things the same between them, but neither was she. There was just nothing they could do. She was the Oracle. There was no way they could be together in any situation. Nico was already half-expecting Apollo to show up and castrate him or something.

Nico sighed and pushed away from the counter. He was so moody lately. One minute he was laughing with Rachel, the next he was depressing himself. When did he become so self-destructive? Or had he always been this way and was just now realizing it?

Nico shook his head and rinsed off his and Rachel's plates. The time for an emotional crisis was over. They needed to think about the quest now. He walked around the house until he found the girls in Rachel's room. They were sitting on her wide bed and talking seriously.

Rachel looked up when he walked in and shifted so that he could sit down. Diane glowered at him but said nothing. Nico sat on the bed with his legs stretched out in front of him. "So can I join the gossip circle, ladies?"

Diane rolled her eyes. "Could you not be a dumbass for like two minutes, please?"

"Nope."

"Just ignore him, Diane," Rachel told her. She turned to Nico. "We're trying to decide the best place to go look for Tyche. Diane told me she didn't see any monsters last night or this morning. Which is weird because lately they have been crawling all over this place."

"Maybe Chrysaor found out that telekhine talked and decided to not send any more monsters in case they let more information slip?"

"Doubt it," Diane muttered. "If he was that worried about us knowing his name he would send a bunch of his strongest to just kill us all."

Rachel considered that. "That's probably true. But I don't think he actually wants us dead."

"Why not?" Nico asked her.

"If he wanted us dead, we probably would be. I mean, think of how many monsters he's sent after us. If he wanted us dead, he would have tried harder to actually kill us. I think he's been testing us. Or just trying to mess with us. After all, it would have been obvious after the first couple days that we weren't going to go down so easily, but he didn't change his strategy."

Nico frowned. "Good point. I wonder what he's actually doing then."

"He needs Tyche's help with something."

Nico and Diane both looked at her. "How do you know that?" Diane asked.

Rachel blushed a little. "I had a dream about it last night. Well, a vision in the form of a dream."

"And you didn't tell us sooner?" Diane asked incredulously.

"I had other things on my mind. And it was just last night," Rachel muttered defensively.

"Whatever. What happened?"

"Well, it was weird. I was in some place and there was sand everywhere. I think it was underground. Anyway, I was running through the halls and I ended up in the gigantic room that was completely dark. I couldn't see anything and then I heard voices. I went and checked it out and I saw Chrysaor and an empousa. I couldn't see what he looked like exactly because he was wearing this huge gold mask, shaped like a gorgon's face. But then he made the empousa get "her" and the empousa dragged out a prisoner and he asked her for help. She didn't say anything and she was taken back to her cage. Then I went and found the cage she was in and saw him whipping her. I think the prisoner was your mom," Rachel finished quietly, absently rubbing her chest. Nico watched the action curiously. She had done that when she woke up last night too.

Diane looked pale. "You're sure it was my mom?"

"Pretty sure. She had black hair and blue eyes and she was bleeding ichor."

Diane nodded, looking determined but still pale. Nico could understand that. He would have been pretty freaked out if he found out his dad had been kidnapped and was being whipped. Nico was actually surprised that Diane wasn't more affected. "Well, we have to find her fast then."

"It could take a while for us to find her. We have no idea where she is."

"She's in the Gobi Desert," Nico said, suddenly remembering what his father had told him.

It was his turn to get stared at. Nico shifted uncomfortably under their heavy gazes as they took that in. "How do you know that?" Diane asked him quietly.

Nico looked down awkwardly. He probably could have said that better. "My dad told me. In a dream. He didn't say where exactly though. Just that she's in the Gobi Desert."

"When did he tell you that?" Diane asked him suspiciously.

Nico coughed and looked down. He meant to tell them both what his father had told him a while ago, but he kept getting distracted and eventually forgot. He wondered for a moment if he should lie and say last night, but he knew it would be useless. Diane would see right through him. "Before we left," he muttered.

Diane kicked Nico on the leg, hard. "Ow! Haven't you given me enough bruises today?" he exclaimed.

"You totally deserve getting beat up. How could you not tell us?" Rachel said.

Nico rubbed his shoulder, feeling guilty. "I meant to…I just kept getting other things on my mind."

Diane kicked him again. "That's a shit excuse, asshole. My mom's been getting whipped and this whole time you knew where she was!" she yelled at him.

"If I had known it was that bad, I would have told you the second I knew! And I don't know exactly where she is! All I know is she is in the Gobi Desert."

"You should've told us a week ago, Nico. We've been sitting here for a week wondering where the hell she could be and knowing the Gobi Desert would've helped a lot," Rachel told him, sounding disappointed, making Nico feel even guiltier than he already did. Her disappointment was a lot worse than Diane's anger.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. I should have told you the second I knew, but I forgot. But we know now right?"

That seemed to appease Rachel a little but not Diane. She leaned forward and punched Nico again, this time on the mouth, causing his head to snap back. Nico shook his head and rubbed his neck. He really needed to learn how to dodge.

Nico could taste blood on his lip and guessed that it was split. "I deserve that I know, but you could you please stop hitting me?"

"I'll stop hitting you when you stop being an asshole," Diane growled at him.

Rachel sighed and pulled a square of ambrosia out of the drawer on her bedside table. Nico wondered why she had it in the first place. She couldn't eat the food of the gods. She was the Oracle, but she was still mortal.

Rachel handed it to Nico and he took a bite. The pain in his lip faded slowly while he ate the rest. Diane gave him a dirty look. "Is there anything else you want to tell us?"

"Nothing helpful, no."

"Good," Rachel said. "Well, at least now we know where to look. Wherever I was in my dream, it seemed to be underground so maybe one of the ruins in the desert? There are probably a lot out there."

"I'll go find a map or something," Diane said and stalked out of the room.

Rachel looked over at Nico after she left. "You really are pissing her off lately."

Nico lay down on her bed and closed his eyes. "I know. I don't mean to, but I just do."

"Don't worry about it too much. She isn't good at holding grudges for long."

Nico felt Rachel's hair tickle his face and opened his eyes. Rachel was leaning on one elbow next to him, her long hair falling over her shoulders. He brushed her hair from his face and she grinned down at him before leaning down and shaking all of her hair in his face. Nico shut his eyes and mouth tightly and waited until she was done having her fun. When she laughed he opened his eyes and gave her a reproachful look. He was about to say something, but Diane chose the moment to reappear.

"So I found some places that look like – what are you two doing?"

Rachel sat up. "Nothing, just annoying Nico."

"Oh, ok. There are like a lot of ruins in the desert, but not too many. Most of the well persevered ones are tourist traps though."

"Hmm," Rachel murmured. "Maybe he isn't in the ruins then."

"Maybe one of them is connected to something? Like maybe some ancient Greek location that moves with the gods? Like Olympus or the entrance to the Underworld," Nico suggested. "Chrysaor could be using that as a hideout or something. Just because the mortals go there doesn't mean he isn't hiding there."

"You think that one of the ruins in an entrance to something else?" Diane asked, making it sound like a stupid suggestion.

"He could be right. In my dream I saw Celestial Bronze doors and stuff."

Diane chewed on her lip for a moment. "Well, should we just pick a place and check it out?"

"That's all we can do. Pick a place and hope it's the right one," Nico said.

"Which one is the biggest or most well preserved?" Rachel asked.

Diane checked her laptop. "The Suoyang Ruins seem to be a pretty big deal. We can get a taxi to go there from either Dunhuang or Anxi. And it only costs 10 yuan."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? We can just go to famous ruins for 10 yuan? And get a taxi there? And then go fight a monster and save a goddess. And all for 10 yuan. That's a good deal."

"Shut the fuck up, Nico. You aren't funny," Diane snapped at him. "We should go tomorrow. Dunhuang is about two days from here. We can take the train or fly. I think the train is better. You ok with that, asshole?"

"Sounds great," Nico said, rolling onto his stomach and pressing his face into Rachel's pillows. They smelled like her, like strawberries and roses. "Are we going to do monster watches tonight?"

"No. We all need rest if we end up finding Chrysaor tomorrow. We should be fine tonight," Rachel said.

"Awesome," Nico muttered, his voice muffled by the pillow.

* * *

 

Nico was sitting on the train next to Rachel with Diane on Rachel's other side. They were about an hour away from Dunhuang, which Nico was extremely happy about. They had been stuck on a train for a day and a half, with only about an hour respite between layovers. Because the train ride was so long they had gone ahead and booked beds in the "Soft Sleeper" compartment, meaning they basically shared a compartment with 4 beds in it. They were lucky Rachel had a lot of money to spend on this quest or they would have had to sleep in their hard plastic seats. Even more luckily, nobody occupied the fourth bed in their compartment so they had it all to themselves.

Nico still couldn't wait to get off this damn train. He hoped they would find Tyche today, if only so he wouldn't have to suffer through another train ride to go to a different set of ruins in the desert. He knew that was probably an awful reason for wanting to rescue Tyche, but he really did not like trains. He had suggested that they just shadow travel to the ruins, but Diane told him she was not going through that unless she had to. Rachel agreed with her.

Suddenly, Rachel leaned over and clamped her hand on his knee, keeping it still. Nico hadn't even noticed he was bouncing it."Stop it," she hissed at him.

"Does that annoy you?" he asked, bouncing his other leg.

Rachel scowled at him, unwilling to lean over him to grab his other leg. Nico laughed and stopped bouncing his legs.

"Nervous, Nico?" Diane asked, leaning forward in her seat so that he could see her.

"No. I just want to get out of this train."

"Whatever you say, Nico," she smirked leaning back again.

Nico rolled his eyes at the empty space where she had been. Rachel was right about her not really being mad at him anymore, but she was going out of her way to annoy him. But that was pretty normal for Diane, so he didn't mind that much.

When they finally got off the train and into a taxi, it was dusk. Nico was worried about that. He didn't like fighting during the night. It was unnecessary most of the time and just made it harder to fight, which made the whole thing more dangerous. But he didn't say anything. They didn't really have a choice at the moment.

They spent most of the taxi ride in silence, each of them filled with tense energy. They all knew that this could be the end of the quest. But somehow Nico didn't think it would be. He hoped they would find Tyche at the ruins, but the quest didn't feel like it had run its course yet. But maybe that was because they hadn't gotten to the ruins yet. He was sure that when they did find Tyche, there would be a hell of a lot to do before they actually got to go back to camp.

When they reached the ruins, Diane assured the taxi driver that they would find a way back and that he didn't need to wait. That was a lie of course, or at least a partial lie. They had no mortal way of getting back to the city. They could only get back to civilization by Nico's shadow traveling or if Tyche could do something. But they didn't want a mortal hanging around just in case.

They waited until the headlights of the taxi disappeared completely. It was pitch black outside the only light coming from the moon and stars when the clouds parted enough to let the light shine down.

"Nico," Rachel hissed, "Do you sense any monsters?" Nico nodded. There was definitely something in the ancient city, something strong. But he couldn't sense any godly presence. Nico didn't think much of that though. He had a harder time sensing gods and Tyche was a minor goddess after all.

They all pulled out their weapons and started toward the ruins. They walked silently, not speaking to each other and trying to see everything they could in the shadows of the ruins. There were footsteps in the dust from tourists and trash here and there, but nothing that would lead them to believe something sinister was hiding in the ruins. If Nico couldn't sense it, he would have thought this place was a bust.

They walked around the ancient city for what seemed like hours and saw nothing. Nico was distracted by the city, his focus less on the quest and more on the ruins. He could feel the spirits of the people who used to live here, pulling at him. It was a strange feeling, but not an altogether unfamiliar one. Spirits did that sometimes, when they sensed danger around him. He wasn't sure why, but they did. Nico figured that they were somehow tied to the places they died in and tried to protect visitors the best they could from the Underworld. Nico only felt their pull in places practically devoid of human inhabitation though.

"This place is seriously creepy," Diane muttered under her breath. Nico silently agreed. With the giant watchtower and huge walls surrounding the place, it had a distinctly haunted feel. Not that Nico was afraid of any ghosts, but the strange feeling of the ruined city made his skin crawl. The absence of human life or any kind of life at all was painfully obvious. No insects chirped or any birds moved. Nico, Rachel, Diane and whatever monsters hide in the shadows were the only living things in this place.

They kept walking, none of them relaxing even when they encountered nothing. The city itself was huge and there were many places a monster could be hiding, especially if the thing was moving around. Nico could tell it was close but he couldn't pinpoint its exact location. But he could sense that it was powerful. They were going to have their hands full with it for sure.

Nico was starting to wonder if his sense was off when they heard a strange sound. It was low and deep. They stopped and Nico tilted his head to the side, trying to figure out what it was.

Diane spoke first, her voice confused. "It sounds like a…person."

"That's what I was thinking. It sounds like a man talking," Rachel agreed quietly.

"Maybe it's a cyclopes imitating someone's voice," Diane said.

"No, it's definitely not a cyclopes. It's too powerful to be a cyclopes," Nico told her.

"Then what could it be?"

"Only one way to find out," Nico murmured.

"This is a bad idea," Rachel muttered but followed Nico.

They followed the sound of the voice. It sounded like a man crying out for help, but they knew better than to think that that was what it was. Certain monsters could imitate voices, like cyclopes or sirens. But whatever this was, it was a lot stronger than any cyclopes or siren. Nico had no idea what the thing was.

Nico froze when he heard a strange sound. Rachel and Diane did the same. It sounded like hoofs on stone, the same thing he heard when Chiron or a satyr walked on stone. The sound was drawing close to them. Nico tensed and gripped his sword tightly, one hand brushing his pocket where his ski mask was. They waited for the monster to come into view.

The sound of a man talking became louder and louder until it stopped with no warning. A second later the monster came into view. It was like nothing Nico had ever seen before. It had the body of a stag, complete with hooves, and a lion's neck and what looked like a mix between a human a lion head with two large antlers sticking out behind the lion like ears. Instead of teeth, the thing had two long jagged bones in its gums that protruded out of its black lips. The continuous bones in its mouth were the worst part about it, with parts broken off and sharp in some places completely smooth in others, like the thing only had two gigantic broken teeth. It was around the size of bear, with long strong looking legs and a thick neck.

"It's a Leucrocotta," Rachel gasped next to him.

"How the hell do you know that?" Nico asked without taking his eyes off the creature. It was just standing there, its head cocked to the left, like it was trying to decide whether or not to eat them.

"She is the Oracle, dumbass," Diane muttered.

Nico didn't answer because at that moment the Leucrocotta opened its mouth wide. It didn't move its jaw but words came out anyway."It has been a long time since I have eaten demigods. I will have to thank Chrysaor for the opportunity."

Nico was pretty sure his jaw was hanging open. The thing had just talked with his voice, his voice exactly. Which was probably the creepiest thing he had ever seen and heard.

The monster did nothing for a moment. Nobody moved.

"So…Chrysaor sent you here?" Rachel asked in a wavering voice. Nico wondered what the hell she was doing, talking to the freaky monster.

The Leucrocotta didn't seem to appreciate that. "I am sent nowhere by no one. I do as I please. But, Chrysaor did request that I come here and I did, by my own free will."

"Do - do you know why he wanted you to come here?" Rachel asked in a small voice.

"He said nothing of why except that there were demigods coming here that he wanted dead. I am happy to oblige him," the Leucrocotta grinned at her. Nico was getting seriously weirded out by hearing the monster say those things with his voice. "Now, enough talking. It is time for my dinner," the monster purred. Nico saw muscles roll in its body as it prepared to strike and he gripped his sword, ready for it to make its move.

The monster sprang at Diane, who jumped out of the way at the last second, dropping to the ground and rolling. The Leucrocotta was faster than expected. It turned around and snarled at her. It leaped again and Nico tried to get in close enough to stab it but it turned and would've taken his head off if Rachel hadn't tried to cut it in the flank and distracted it. The Leucrocotta twisted out of the way of their blades and faced them. It licked its lips with a cracked, pale yellow tongue. "I do like a meal that fights back," it chuckled.

It jumped again, this time aiming for Nico. He rolled out of the way and sliced at the Leucrocotta. His sword caught the side of the monsters face and opened a long slice. The Leucrocotta roared in pain, but otherwise nothing happened. Nico felt a sudden swooping sensation in his stomach. The monster should have vaporized the second his sword touched it. Why didn't it die? Was it somehow immune to Stygian Iron?

The Leucrocotta lunged again and Nico jumped out of the way, but not fast enough. Part of the jagged bone in its mouth caught him on the leg and ripped down his thigh. Nico cried out in pain, feeling the warmth spread down his leg. He fell down hard in the dirt. The Leucrocotta licked Nico's blood off of its teeth-like bone and made a rumbling noise in its chest. "Delicious," it murmured as it advanced on him.

A rock came out of nowhere and hit the Leucrocotta on its large antler. The Leucrocotta flinched and spun around to face Diane, who had thrown the stone at him. The Leucrocotta growled but didn't move, black blood pouring out of the gash on its disturbing face. Before the thing could turn around and eat Nico, he pulled on his now blood soaked ski mask and disappeared. The world around him turned darker and he looked down at himself. Nothing. He couldn't feel the pain in his leg so he stood up.

The Leucrocotta turned around and found that Nico wasn't there. It started to turn its head and instead found one of Rachel's swords coming at it. It roared at her and dodged the blow. Rachel jumped away as the monster snapped at her.

Nico snuck around the monster while Diane rushed to help Rachel. He willed his sword to appear and when it did, plunged it in the Leucrocotta's back. The monster screamed in pain and whirled around to find out who had attacked him. It moved too fast for Rachel and Diane to get at it. Nico tried to make the monster feel terror, but it didn't work. The Leucrocotta must be one of the strong monsters Nico's father had told him about. He made his sword and arm melt back into the shadows while the Leucrocotta searched for him.

Rachel tried to slice the Leucrocotta's throat while it was distracted but it turned to her before she could move. Nico watched in stunned horror as part of the monster's jaw closed over Rachel's torso. Her eyes bugged out and the blood rushed to her face and her mouth formed a shocked O as the jagged bone tore into her flesh. Nico heard Diane scream, but the sound was muffled by the blood pounding in his head. He ripped off his wet ski mask, ignoring the searing pain in his leg and ran toward the monster. The Leucrocotta dropped Rachel in surprise when it saw him. She fell to the ground in a heap, blood pooling around her at an alarming rate. Before the monster could move away, Nico brought his sword down at its neck in an arc, severing it from the body. Nico watched as the monster crumbled to dust until the only thing left of the Leucrocotta was a large antler on the ground.

Nico dropped on his knees next to Rachel. Her eyes were open and her chest was barely moving. She was looking at him, blood dripping out of the corner of her mouth. He looked down at her side, where a large bloody crescent was torn into her skin from her hip to just below her breast. She was lucky the monster hadn't taken a chunk out of her, but Nico didn't think she would survive this wound. And he couldn't do anything for her. He didn't have any healing powers and he couldn't give her any ambrosia or nectar. Diane kneeled next to Rachel's head, looking stunned.

Rachel body spasmed and Nico could see the pain and fear in her eyes. Nico reached forward and grabbed her hand, threading his fingers through her ice cold ones. He could feel the life leaving her body. Tears burned his eyes as she stared at him. He vaguely heard Diane let out a small sob.

Nico leaned forward and brushed hair out of Rachel's face. Her skin felt cold and clammy. Nico felt numb, like he wasn't even processing what was happening. But he knew what was going on. Rachel was dying and there was nothing he could do to help her.

Rachel eyes closed slowly and gave a tiny huff of breath. Her chest didn't move again. Nico could feel her spirit leave her body, like a faint buzzing went through his entire body. He felt hot tears drip down his face as he stared at her. He couldn't stop looking at her. Rachel looked like she could have been sleeping and he found himself waiting for her eyes to open, even though he knew they wouldn't. She was gone, he knew it. He bit down on his lip hard, trying to keep himself together.

Diane moved over to him and pressed her face into his shoulder, her whole body shaking with sobs. Nico wrapped an arm around her without letting go of Rachel's hand. He wasn't ready to let go yet, not ready to admit to himself that she was gone. To admit that was to admit that he would never see her smile again, or hear her laugh, or watch her roll her bright eyes at him, never hear her say his name again. Not the way she had before. He couldn't accept that she was gone and the only way he would ever be able to see her again was as a spirit, a pale imitation of who she really was. Her spirit would do all those things, it would smile and talk to him, but it wouldn't be the same. Something would always be missing. He had learned that when he talked to Bianca after she died. They were the same, but they weren't. And it only grew worse after time. After a while, Rachel would forget things, might not even remember who she was during life or who he was. She would become just like all the other spirits in the Underworld, vacant and sad. Nico bent his head down, finally looking away from her. Diane wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tightly. Nico could feel her tears soaking into the fabric of his shirt.

Suddenly, Rachel gasped. Nico looked up in surprise. Her body arched off the ground and slumped back down. Diane jumped and looked at her with the same disbelief that Nico was feeling. Rachel's eyes flew open, her usual bright green replaced with the eerie glow of the Spirit of Delphi. Nico stared at her in shock. He had assumed that when Rachel died, the Oracle moved on to somewhere else.

Nico felt Rachel's spirit slam back into her body and her pulse return. The Oracle's eyes met Nico's before closing again, this time in a way that seemed more natural than before. Diane leaned forward and pressed a hand to Rachel's chest while Nico sat frozen.

Rachel's chest moved up and down with even, short breaths. She was alive. Nico couldn't move. He just stared. He couldn't believe what just happened, even though he had watched it happen with his own eyes. Diane turned to him, her face a mask of relief and shock. "We should get back to the house. We can help her there," she said in a chocked voice.

Nico nodded dumbly. He let go of Diane and stood up, ignoring the pain in his leg. He bent down and pulled Rachel into his arms. She was light and he could feel her blood wetting his clothes. Diane walked over to where the Leucrocotta's antler lay and picked it up before wrapping her arm through Nico's. Nico breathed deeply and reached for the shadows.

They appeared in the living room of their house. Nico was about to set Rachel down on the couch but there was someone already sitting on it. A blond teenager wearing a wife beater and ripped jeans was sprawled out on the couch. When he saw them he stood up, his face tense and worried. "Give her to me," he said to Nico, gesturing urgently. "I can help her."

When Nico didn't move, he sighed. "I can help her. I can save her life. She'll die without me. She was lucky Delphi was even able to bring her back."

Diane stepped forward. "And just who the hell are you?" she asked, probably more savagely than she intended.

The blond teenager grinned at her, though the smile didn't reach his eyes. "I'm Apollo. God of Medicine."


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

Chapter Eight:

Nico trudged up the stairs, his boots leaving a dirty trail behind him. Rachel would be mad at him later for that. If she could be angry at all.

Nico closed his eyes for a second so he wouldn't have to look at the blood that soaked his clothes. Some of it belonged to him, from the wound that was still bleeding on his leg. But that wasn't the blood that bothered him. The blood that bothered Nico was the blood that covered his hands and arms. Blood that belonged to Rachel.

At that moment, Nico had no idea what was happening to Rachel. The second Nico had surrendered her to Apollo, he had run gone into one of the unused guest rooms of the house, leaving Nico and Diane staring after him. When Diane regained her senses she told Nico to go get cleaned up. He didn't even have the energy to argue with her about it. He just walked upstairs without a word.

Nico's only comfort was that he would know if something happened to Rachel. He would feel it, like a faint shiver through his entire body and a buzzing in his ear. If she died again, he would know it. But Nico kept telling himself that she wouldn't die, that he wouldn't have to feel her soul leaving her body. Apollo was with her and he was doing his best to keep her alive. And Apollo's best could keep anybody alive.

Nico walked into his room and leaned against his closed door, blood and dirt smearing the white wood. He squeezed his eyes shut and focused all of his attention on the first floor guest room. He could just barely feel Rachel's life force. He hoped that the faintness of it came from the fact that he wasn't functioning well at the moment and not because her life was almost gone, but he doubted it.

Nico jumped slightly when Rachel's energy fluctuated. It held steady after a second but it was still faint. Nico stood up straight and rubbed his face. It wasn't a good idea to stand there and make himself more worried about her than he already was, especially when there was nothing he could do to help her. Apollo was with Rachel. He wouldn't let her die.

Nico walked into his bathroom and pulled off all his clothes. He looked down at his injured leg. There was a large cut running from the top of his thigh to about a couple inches above his knee. Hot pain pulsed from it with every beat of his heart, but Nico didn't mind. In fact, he almost welcomed it. Pain was better than the numbness that had settled over him.

It wasn't the fact that Rachel was hurt that was affecting Nico as much as it was. It was horrible and scared the hell out of him, but it wasn't what was making him feel so empty. What really bothered Nico is that he hadn't been able to help her. He had stood by while she was fatally wounded. Held her hand while she died. The only reason she was even alive was Delphi bringing her back and Apollo keeping her alive. Nico had not been able to do a thing to help her.

If he had only done something, Rachel wouldn't have been hurt. If he had been able to kill that monster before Rachel had to help him she would be fussing over his leg right now and calling him an idiot for getting hurt. But because Nico hadn't been able to help her, she was lying on a bed downstairs, bloody and hurt, with Apollo doing his best to save her life.

Nico ran a hand through his hair and stared at his reflection in the mirror. It was Bianca's death all over again. If only he had been able to help Rachel. Instead, he was relying on everybody else to fix her. He couldn't do anything for her. He couldn't do anything but wait and see if she actually got better.

Nico pressed the heel of his hands into his eyes and stepped into the shower. All he could do was wait and hope. But in the meantime, he could at least clean himself up.

* * *

 

Nico was sitting on the couch with Diane, picking at the bandage on his leg. For the third time, Diane smacked his hand away.

"Stop messing with it! You'll only mess up the bandage and then I'll have to do it again."

"It's annoying."

"I don't care. Deal with it."

Nico slouched down and went back to staring holes into the door to the guest room. Apollo had been in there for a long time. Nico couldn't help but wonder what was going in there. It shouldn't take him that long to fix a bad wound. Nico knew Apollo had done more miraculous things before.

The waiting was making him even more anxious than he had been already. What if Apollo couldn't save her? What if she died again? Nico had no idea what he would do.

He couldn't imagine going back to camp without her. Having to face Chiron and all the other campers and know that it was basically his fault that she died. He wouldn't be able to do it. If only he and Diane got back home he would never get over it.

He always wondered how people were able to move on with their lives after they lost a friend on a quest. Percy had been able to do it multiple times. A bunch of other campers had lost friends and siblings on quests and most of the time it didn't even seem to affect them. Nico knew he wouldn't be able to do that. He could barely deal with Bianca's loss and he hadn't even been there when she died. But to watch a friend die and know that you could have done more would be ten times as awful.

Nico knew that if Rachel didn't make it back, Chiron wouldn't blame him. In fact, nobody would. They would all just assume that it couldn't have been helped. After all, quests are dangerous. People die. It's just what happens. And after a while, people would forget. Rachel would become just another girl who died. Campers would talk about her and think about how her life ended, just the same way people talked about Thalia before she was revived. Or the same way people talk about Luke. They wouldn't blame Nico for her death, but he would.

Suddenly the door opened and Apollo stepped out. Nico had expected him to look happy or self-satisfied when he finally came out and said that Rachel was going to be ok, but instead, Apollo looked worried. Nico looked behind him and into the guest room, but he couldn't see Rachel.

"Is something wrong?" Diane asked, standing up.

"You could say that," Apollo sighed, sitting down on the couch and running a hand through his blond hair.

"Well, what is it? Can you heal her or not?" Nico demanded.

"The wound? Easily. It's the poison that's the problem."

Nico stared at him, frozen. Diane made a strange choking sound. "Poison? What poison?" she asked.

Apollo frowned at her. "The poison from the Leucrocotta bite. I thought you knew about it."

"No. We didn't," Nico said weakly, still trying to process what Apollo was saying. He couldn't heal her. Rachel was going to die. Nico was glad he was sitting down.

Apollo was about to say something but Diane interrupted him. "Wait. Nico was hurt by the Leucrocotta too. Why isn't he dying from poison?"

Apollo furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't know..." he turned to Nico. "We're you actually bitten by the Leucrocotta?"

Nico shook his head. "No. It just cut me with its…teeth."

"Well, that's probably why," Apollo shrugged. "The Leucrocotta has control over its poison. It can release it only when it wants too, usually when it bites down, like it did for Rachel. It must not have tried to poison you."

"Is the poison fatal?" Nico asked him, knowing the answer but still hoping for something different.

"Yes," Apollo raised his hands in a "hold on" gesture when Diane raised a hand to her mouth and looked like she was about to cry. "But we have time. The poison is slow. I have her stabilized enough to where she will be able to live for a while, but we need to act fast. I know what we need to do to help her."

"So why haven't you done anything about it yet?" Nico snapped at him.

Apollo glared at him. "I may be the god of medicine, but I am not all-powerful. Leucrocotta poison is very rare and only has one antidote. And I don't have access to it. I can do nothing more without it."

"So, what? That's it? I tried but I can't do anything? You're just going to let Rachel die?" Nico growled.

"Nico, stop it," Diane said quietly. Nico ignored her.

"I'm not going to let her die," Apollo said with forced calm. "I just need your help. Like I said, I do not have access to the antidote. But you do."

That made Nico stop his angry scowling. "What?" he asked.

"The antidote is a plant called Crocus. It's only found on the Isles of the Blessed. I cannot travel to the Underworld without Hades' permission, but you can go there and get the plant no problem."

Nico stared at Apollo. "The Isles of the Blessed?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Um, yes. Only spirits can go there. The living can't."

"The living technically can't go to the Underworld at all," Diane pointed out.

"That's different. The Isles of the Blessed are guarded against the living."

"So is the Underworld."

Nico scowled at her. "Not like the Isles are. The Underworld's main defense against the living is Cerberus and maybe Charon, but anyone can get past them easily. Neither of them even bother with me. But I don't even know what guards The Isles. It could be anything. And whatever it is, it's strong. Many people have tried to go to the Isles, and no one has made it. No living person has ever stepped foot on the Isles of the Blessed."

Diane raised an eyebrow at him. "You've never been there?"

"No. My dad warned me not to go there. He told me that what guards the Isles wouldn't give me any special treatment because I'm his son. He wouldn't even tell me what guards the place. My dad doesn't usually give a shit what I do so if he tells me not to do something and has a good reason, I try to listen," Nico turned to Apollo. "Are you sure this plant only grows on the Isles? There is no other place we could get it from?"

"Positive. Crocus can only be found on the Isles of the Blessed."

"How did it even get there?" Nico grumbled. "Plants don't naturally grow in the Underworld."

"Persephone planted them there after Hades kidnapped her and made her his wife. They were her favorite flower on earth so she brought them to the Underworld and planted them on the Isles. I think her reasoning was that if the spirits of true heroes had to spend eternity there, the place should at least be beautiful. The plant died off on earth, so the Underworld plants are the only kind we have to work with."

Nico pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew he had no other choice than to go. There would be no way he wouldn't try his hardest to save Rachel no matter how bad of an idea it was. "How long does she have?" he asked Apollo.

Apollo glance at the guest room and tapped his chin. "I would say a couple days, maybe more, maybe less. It's hard to tell with a poison so rare. You should leave as soon as possible."

Nico nodded and looked at Diane. "I can shadow travel down there and get it. Shouldn't take too long, you know, if I don't get maimed or killed in the process."

Diane glowered at him. "You think you're going without me?"

"Yeah, you're not going," Nico told her. This would be dangerous enough. He didn't want Diane getting hurt too. It was bad enough Rachel was hurt. He didn't want Diane getting injured while he was leading her on what he knew to be an extremely dangerous quest.

"Of course I'm going. Do you think you're just going to leave me here to wait for you to get back? Please. And besides, you need someone to keep you out of trouble. You are not going by yourself. I don't care how dangerous it is, I'm coming with you."

Nico sighed and Apollo laughed. "I wouldn't argue with her, little cuz. She's like my sister. Always wants to be a part of the action," he said, smiling blindingly at Diane.

Nico glared at him. "Don't call me 'little cuz.'"

Apollo shook his head, still smiling. "You wouldn't have minded when I first met you. You thought I was awesome."

"No I didn't."

"Yes, you did. You thought everything about me was cool. You even asked if you could drive the sun chariot."

"Just because I thought your car was cool, doesn't mean I thought you were."

"You were star-struck by me. It was obvious."

"I was not," Nico glowered at him.

Apollo laughed. "Whatever, kid."

"Don't call me kid either," Nico growled under his breath as he stalked up the stairs. He didn't appreciate Apollo's attitude or him bringing up anything Nico thought or said when he was ten.

Nico went into his room and pulled his ski mask out of his ripped jeans. The fabric was still damp with blood so Nico went to the sink and ran it under hot water, watching the water turn pink. He pulled it out when he was sure he got all the blood out.

He stuffed it into his pocket after wringing it out and grabbed his sword. He pulled a backpack over his shoulder and walked back downstairs. He didn't think they would need much for this little adventure besides weapons.

At least now he was doing something to help Rachel instead of just sitting around, even if what he was doing was probably one of the most dangerous things he would ever attempt. Nico was almost surprised that he didn't know a thing about the Isles after he thought about it, but then again, the Underworld held many secrets. And Nico had never really cared that much about the Isles. He had never really tried to unearth the secrets of the place.

But it didn't matter. He didn't care that it was dangerous. Rachel needed an antidote and Nico could get her one. He wasn't going to stand around and watch Rachel suffer just because he was a little scared of what could happen.

When Nico got downstairs he found Apollo and Diane sitting on the couch, both laughing at something. Apollo was sitting a little too close to Diane, something Nico found strangely annoying.

"I bet he was adorable," Diane chuckled. Nico scowled. Rachel was in the room next to them, dying, and Diane was sitting on the couch laughing about whatever like she was talking to her high school crush.

"Adorable isn't the word I would use. Annoying or dorky would probably be better," Apollo grinned down at Diane.

"What are you two talking about?" Nico interrupted, even though he had a feeling he knew exactly what they were talking about.

Diane turned to him and grinned. "Mythomagic, Nico. Really?"

Nico's face burned. People always threw that in his face. It happened to be one of Percy's favorite topics of conversation, so a lot of people knew about his childhood obsession. Nico wished he had been into something cooler as a kid. Nico ignored their laughter and went into the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Diane called after him.

"Food," Nico yelled back. He loaded up his backpack with any kind of packaged food he could find. He didn't expect to be in the Underworld long, but he wanted to be prepared. Food was something they needed and something they couldn't get in the Underworld. Nico didn't want to end up trapped there forever, with only Hades, Persephone, and the dead for company just because he had forgotten to pack properly.

When Nico returned to the living room Diane was chuckling at something and Apollo was looking very self-satisfied. But that could just be Apollo's default expression.

"What's so funny?" Nico asked, even though he didn't really care. He just wanted to interrupt Apollo's attempt to make Diane swoon over him.

"Did you really ask Percy if he could surf just because he was the son of Poseidon?"

Nico narrowed his eyes on Apollo. But instead of saying anything to him, he turned back to Diane. "Oh, that's all? I thought Apollo had told you about his haiku phase."

Diane looked at Apollo, with a delighted expression. "Haiku phase?" she laughed. Apollo shot a murderous glare at Nico who smirked.

"Yeah, he had some good ones," Nico continued. "I can't really remember exactly. Why don't you recite for us, Apollo?"

Nico got the feeling he was about to be smote into dust. He smirked victoriously at Apollo while Diane doubled over with laughter.

Nico walked away from them and went into the guest room. He stood next to the bed and looked down at Rachel's pale face. She looked peaceful, not like there was deadly poison running through her veins. Nico brushed a strand of hair away from her forehead. Her skin felt normal, not like there was anything wrong with her. Nico reached down and pulled up her shirt a little to look at her side.

The long cut on her side was a sickly green color with a strange purple ringed around it. Acid green liquid seemed to fill the open wound instead of blood. The skin around the cut was ashen and seemed shiny somehow. Nico pulled Rachel's shirt back down over the wound, feeling a little nauseous and a lot scared. It was worse than Apollo had made it seem.

Nico pulled the covers up to Rachel's chin. He let his fingers linger over her cheeks, his fingertips barely brushing against her skin. He looked over his shoulder to make sure Apollo wasn't hanging over him before leaning down and gently kissing Rachel on the temple. He looked at her one more time before walking out of the room and closing the door behind him.

He walked back into the living room and found Diane waiting for him. Apollo looked at him suspiciously but didn't say anything. Apollo instead turned toward Diane. "Remember, sweetheart, I need at least half a dozen flowers for this too work. Get more if you can."

Diane nodded and looked at Nico. "Do we really have to shadow travel there?"

"It's the only way to get there."

"I hate shadow travel," she grumbled as she slid her arm around his waist. Nico rolled his eyes.

"Good luck, sweetheart," Apollo winked at Diane before she and Nico disappeared.

Nico and Diane were standing on the bank of the River Styx. Diane looked up and gazed at the dark cavern roof of the Underworld before looking around at their surroundings.

Nico watched the look on her face as she took in the Underworld. He didn't bring many people down here and he was curious to see how she was reacting. Diane stared at the Fields of Punishment for a long time before she glanced at Nico. "Is that…?"

"Yup. The Fields of Punishment. Don't worry, we won't get too close."

Diane nodded. She looked pale. But Nico could understand that, sort of. The Underworld was a creepy place to be. Nico was just used to it.

Nico looked around. There were no spirits or skeletons around, just him and Diane. Nico grabbed her hand and they started walking.

"How far away are the Isles of the Blessed?" she asked him quietly.

"Pretty far away. But it's not too bad. We can make it there soon. As long as no one interrupts us."

"Who would interrupt us?"

"A chatty spirit. Or the Furies might."

Diane shivered and walked a little closer to Nico. He looked at her face, trying to figure out what she was thinking. She looked a little scared. Nico wondered if she was thinking about how when she died, she would be trapped here forever. Or wondering how she would be judged when she died. Those were the things Nico usually thought about when he came to the Underworld and starting thinking too much about it.

They walked until they found the Main Gate. Nico could see Cerberus, or well, Nico could see his outline. The dog blended in very well. Nico could hear the dog growling, but it didn't do anything. Cerberus never gave him any trouble.

"What's that noise?" Diane whispered.

Nico pointed. "See him? It's Cerberus. He blends in with whatever is behind him, so he's kinda hard to see."

Diane nodded. "Now I see him. Is he growling at us?"

"Yeah, but don't worry. He always growls. It's kind of his thing." Diane looked at Cerberus warily but allowed Nico to guide her around him.

They kept on walking. Nico looked around at all the spirits waiting in the lines to be judged. The lines were backed up of course. The skeleton guards stationed around the lines stared at him with their hallow eye sockets. One saluted to him.

Diane and Nico walked in silence for most of the way. Diane looked around at everything, the spirits and dead trees and distant flames. When Nico stopped suddenly, she looked at him. "What?"

"Nothing. Just trying to figure out the best way to get to the Isles. We can take the long way through the Fields of Asphodel or we can go the other way and get close to the Fields of Punishment."

"How about we go through Asphodel."

Nico shrugged. "Ok." He turned and started walking to the Fields. It looked just like it always did. Dead, yellow grass, wandering spirits, the occasional fallen stalactite.

As they were walking, several spirits came up to them and started chattering. Diane looked at Nico. "Can you understand them?"

Nico shrugged. "Sort of. Most of it is just babble. None of these spirits actually remember their lives. Some of them remember bits and pieces, but for the most part its nothing. They're confused and try to ask for help."

Diane frowned. "That seems so sad. They forget everything? Their friends? Their kids and spouses?"

"Yes. Almost all spirits forget eventually. The only ones who remember are the spirits in Elysium and the Fields, but even then they can forget most things. In the Fields, most of them only remember what they are being punished for. It's better in Elysium, but not great."

"Well, at least now I have something to look forward to," Diane muttered.

Nico chuckled. They didn't talk again until they came upon the gate to Elysium. Nico could see the Isles of the Blessed in the distance, three small islands with pristine white beaches surrounded by glittering blue water. It looked beautiful. But Nico wished he didn't have to go there. He didn't want to even try and imagine what horrible thing guarded those pretty islands.

"This is it?" Diane asked him.

"Yes. This is Elysium."

"It looks like a rich neighborhood. Or at least parts of it do."

That was true. Elysium was made of a bunch of nice houses from multiple time periods. There were modern houses, like something you would find in a wealthy district in New York and then there were houses that looked like they were from the Medieval Times or Ancient Rome. Nico could even see what looked like a Native American hut sheltered behind a large 1800's era mansion.

Nico grabbed the lock on the gates to Elysium and poked the tip of his sword in it and picked the lock. He dropped the heavy padlock on the ground and pulled the gates open. The gates were heavy and creaked ominously. They seemed slightly out of place with the bright green grass around them. He held them open for Diane and then pulled them closed. The second the gates touched back together, the padlock rose from the ground and locked the gates together again.

"How are we going to get back out?" Diane asked him, eyeing the lock.

"We can shadow travel out."

"Why couldn't we have just shadow travelled here?"

"Magic boundaries over Elysium. Keep people from coming in like that, but not going out."

"That's seems pretty stupid."

Nico shrugged. "A lot of the things my dad does to protect this place are stupid. Zeus isn't the only god with paranoia problems."

"So why exactly are the Isles guarded?" Diane asked him as they walked through the cobbled stone streets.

Nico frowned. "I don't know exactly. Hades wouldn't tell me why. Actually, all I know about the Isles of the Blessed is that it's guarded and very few people actually live there."

"Hmm. Are you going to try and go there after you die?"

"Probably not. If I make Elysium at all."

"I find it kind of hard to believe your father wouldn't let you into Elysium."

"Hades doesn't make those decisions. The Judges do. And they don't show favorites. My father can override the judges and deal with spirits personally, but he hardly ever does. I've got plenty of half-siblings in the Fields of Asphodel and some in the Fields of Punishment. Hades didn't do anything for them."

"That kinda sucks. You would think your dad would make sure you had a good afterlife if he could."

"Well, most of them deserved where they went. I mean, Hitler is in the Fields of Punishment and he deserves to be there."

Diane stared at him for a moment. "Hitler was a son of Hades? He was your half-brother? That's just weird."

"I have a lot of half-siblings that I would rather not talk about. It's nothing new."

Diane laughed. "I bet you do."

Nico half-smiled at her. He was glad Diane wasn't super pissed off at him anymore. He really did like talking to her when she wasn't calling him an asshole every two seconds or threatening him.

They walked through the streets of Elysium and looked around at the houses. They were fascinating. Nico wondered who exactly built all the houses here. Each one was tailored for its occupant perfectly, or at least Nico assumed they were. They saw no spirits wandering around the streets, which was strange. Usually they were everywhere.

Walking past some of them he could hear the sounds of a TV blaring or food being cooked and he wondered what it would be like to live there for eternity. Nico thought about it. Living in the Underworld's classiest neighborhood and making friends with your ghost neighbors while the damned wailed in the distance.

Diane and Nico wandered around until they found the shore of the lake that the Isles floated in. The water was an unnatural blue color that looked extremely inviting. Nico poked the toe of his boot in the water. The dirt slid off the black leather and disappeared into the clean water.

"So how exactly are we going to get over there? And where is this guard supposed to be?" Diane asked.

"Probably on the islands. As to getting over there…I have no idea. I don't really feel like swimming all the way."

"How are spirits usually transported here?"

"Charon takes them here personally."

Nico paced on the shore, trying to figure out a way to get over there. He wasn't paying attention to what was happening behind him so he was slightly surprised when he walked straight through a spirit standing next to him.

Nico jumped back, coughing. Walking through a ghost felt like walking through smoke. And Nico had unfortunately chosen that moment to breathe in. He stared at the spirit who had just appeared on the shore next to him.

He had short sandy blond hair, bright blue eyes and was a little shorter than Nico was. He looked to be around Nico's age. He would have been extremely handsome if it weren't for the thick, long scar that ran from just below his eye to his chin and he was a little see through, like all spirits were. Nico gaped at him.

"Luke?"

The ghost smiled. "Hey, Nico. Been a long time, huh?"

"Wait, this is Luke?" Diane asked. "The Luke that killed Kronos?"

Luke grinned. "The one and only."

Nico stared at him. He was nothing like Nico remembered, but Nico had only known Luke when Kronos was possessing him. This Luke seemed calm and laid back, just like any 23 year old guy should be. He was wearing jeans and a clean white shirt. The only thing that was off about his appearance was the scar on his face and the bloodstain on his shirt. Nico guessed that was where he had stabbed himself to banish the Titan King from his body.

"What are you doing here?" Nico asked him. "I thought you were going for rebirth?"

"I did. I'm about to start my third life."

"What happened to the second one?"

Luke grimaced. "Well…I died really young. I was trying to help my younger…uh "sister" get out of our burning house. So here I am again."

"Shouldn't you look like a little kid then?" Diane asked him.

Luke laughed. "No. Even after rebirth we look like what when we first died. So even after I die for a third time, I'll still look like this. "

"And do you still remember everything from your first life?" Nico asked him.

"Yes. Everything. I'm not sure if that's just me though. But I think most reborn spirits remember everything from all their lives. All the ones I've talked to have."

Nico's mind went blank. He completely forgot about Luke and Diane and what he was doing here in the first place. Ever since his sister had chosen rebirth, he had wondered what would happen after she died in her new life. If she would be someone else, if she would even remember him. But according to Luke, she would be herself. Which meant he could see Bianca again and she would remember him. He would be able to talk to his sister again, even if she was just still a ghost.

Nico's attention snapped back to Luke when he started talking again. "So you guys are trying to get to the Isles of the Blessed? Why?"

Nico cleared his throat, trying to dislodge the sudden lump that formed there. "Our friend Rachel is hurt. Well, poisoned. And the antidote we need is on those islands."

"Rachel…? Isn't she the girl that hit me in the eye with a hairbrush?"

"Yes."

Luke grinned. "I like her. She's the Oracle now right?"

"Yes. So we need to get to the islands and save her life, because she is kinda important. Do you know a way?"

"Sort of. I don't know if it will work for sure, but it might."

"Well, what is it?"

Luke turned and pointed down the shoreline. "At the end of the shore over there, Charon takes the souls to the Isles. He is due to go there tomorrow. You might be able to bribe him into taking you there."

Diane looked at Nico with raised eyebrows. "Lucky timing, huh?"

"Definitely," he turned back to Luke. "Do you know what guards the Isles?"

The ghost shook his head. "No idea."

Nico sighed. "Well, thanks for the help. Hope you have fun being reborn or whatever."

Luke laughed. "No problem, Nico. Got to make up for my mistakes somehow, right?"

Nico and Diane watched as Luke disappeared. Diane glanced at him. "Are all spirits that…alive?"

"No. Most of them hardly even act like the people they used to be. Luke was probably like that because he died recently. After time the souls become…empty."

Diane frowned at him. "How do you know he died recently?"

"I'm the son of Hades. I know things like that."

"That's a depressing power to have," Diane muttered.

"Better than having no powers at all," Nico said under his breath.

Diane narrowed her eyes at him. "What did you just say?" she asked, making the question sound like a threat and daring him to repeat himself at the same time. Diane hated it when he made fun of her for having no special powers.

"Nothing. Just calling myself an asshole."

"Good. So what are we going to do until Charon gets here?"

"I don't know. Maybe we can break into one of the houses and sleep there?"

"I am not sleeping under the same roof as a ghost."

"We are literally in a huge cave full of ghosts and you're worried about sleeping in the same house as one?"

Diane glared at him. Nico sighed. "Would you rather sleep on the ground?"

"Can't we go sleep at the palace or something?"

Nico grimaced. His father wouldn't be too pleased with him bringing Diane here. He hated mortal showing up in his realm. Of course, he would already know Diane was here but he didn't really want to flaunt the fact that she was under his father's nose. And he would have to explain why they were here in the first place.

"It would be better if we just stayed here. And besides, the palace is too far away from here. Let's just go find a house and hope it's empty. Not all the houses here are used."

Diane groaned but followed him anyway. Nico knew there were probably plenty houses in Elysium that weren't being used but he didn't know which ones they were exactly. But he knew one that was definitely not being used by any spirit.

Nico walked down the familiar path in silence. It had been a long time since he was in Elysium. And he wasn't sure how he felt about coming back.

When they got to the house, Diane hesitated outside of it. The building itself was simple, painted white with a black roof. It looked like any common house you would find walking around the US in the 1920's. There was nothing special about it. No lights were on inside and the windows were all covered with curtains. "Are you sure no one's home?"

"Yes," Nico said and walked inside.

Diane followed him inside and watched him as he flicked on the lights. The house looked exactly as it had when he had last been here. Not a lot of furniture, hardly any modern appliances. Nico liked the house. It was familiar and made him feel a little nostalgic.

Diane looked around before turning to him. "Whose house was this, Nico?"

Nico sighed. Diane was observant. Nico wondered if she had noticed the easy way he moved in the house, like he had done it a million times before or the reluctance he had shown when he walked up to it. "It used to be my sisters," he muttered, not looking at her.

"Used to be?" Diane questioned quietly.

"She chose rebirth," Nico said shortly.

"Oh," Diane said softly. "I'm sorry."

Nico shrugged one shoulder. "It was her choice. It's what she wanted."

Diane looked like she had no idea what to say so Nico pulled his bag off of his shoulder and dug around in it. He pulled out a box of poptarts and handed a package to her. "Here. Hope you like strawberry."

Diane grinned at him and sat down at the kitchen table. "How long have we been down here?"

"No idea. Probably a while."

"Do you think we'll make it in time?"

"Yeah," Nico said, even though he was worried. It might have felt like they were in the Underworld for only hours but that could be days on the surface. "We'll make it. We have to."

"How do you think Rachel's doing?" Diane asked quietly, handing her second poptart to Nico.

"She looked bad when I went in to check on her. But hopefully Apollo is actually paying attention to her and not streaming porn on the TV."

Diane chuckled before changing the subject. "When do you think Charon is going to show up?"

"Probably at the worst moment possible. We should be up early."

Diane made a face. "Fine. Where are we sleeping?"

Nico hesitated. For some reason, he didn't want Diane to sleep in the other rooms of the house. This is was Bianca's house. It felt wrong for her to use it like it was just some random building. "Just in here. You take the couch."

"Such a gentleman, sleeping on the floor for me," she teased as walked into the living room and got comfortable on the couch.

Nico rolled his eyes and grabbed one of the cushions. He dropped down on the floor next to the couch and tried his best to get comfortable on the hardwood floor. He closed his eyes and tried to empty his mind. He would never be able to sleep if he thought about everything that was going on right now. He wondered how Rachel was doing back at the house. He was too far away from her to feel her life force, so all he could do was hope that she was alive and that she would stay like that long enough for him and Diane to go find those stupid flowers.

* * *

 

Rachel felt a horrible pain in her side. She felt dizzy, like she was moving and she had no idea where she was. All she could hear was the blood pounding in her head. She felt sore throughout her entire body, like she had been hit by a speeding truck. Her limbs felt numb and dead, like she had lost all feeling to them except for an annoying tingling sensation that buzzed through her. She felt sick and achy and like she was filled with some kind of dense, heavy fluid that made it hard for her to breath or move.

She wanted to open her eyes and find out what was going on but it felt like her eyelids were glued shut. She forced them open, feeling like she was ripping skin in the process. She blinked and gazed at the ceiling around her. It looked similar to the ceiling in her room back at the house, but different at the same time. Rachel moved her head to the side, wincing when a sharp pain shot through her spine to her neck. She could see almost nothing because the room was dark. There was nobody in the room with her.

Rachel didn't even want to try and sit up. She felt strange. She couldn't describe it, but she did not feel right. She tried to remember what had happened before she got here. She was with Nico and Diane and they were fighting the Leucrocotta and Nico had gotten hurt. She tried to stab at the monster and it bit her. Rachel shivered at the memory and as the pain in her side flared.

Everything after that was hazy. She remembered lying on the ground with Nico and Diane kneeling next to her, both of them crying. Nico was holding her hand and looking at her with a tortured expression. Then everything went black.

Rachel squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember but there was nothing. She reopened them, frustrated. She wondered where Nico and Diane were. If she was hurt, she would have expected them to be leaning over her sick bed, worried as hell. But she couldn't hear anything in the house. It was completely quiet.

Right when Rachel was getting worried about them, the door to her room opened. Rachel was surprised when she saw blond hair. She had thought it was Nico walking in.

Apollo grinned when he saw her open eyes. "How're you feeling, sweetheart?"

"Like hell," she answered, her voice grating through her throat making her sound like a chain smoker.

Apollo laughed, which Rachel thought was slightly inappropriate, given how she was feeling at the moment. "What happened?" she asked him.

Apollo sat down on the bed. The movement of the mattress made Rachel grimace in pain as her body shifted. "You were bitten by a Leucrocotta."

"Then why haven't you fixed me?"

"Because you were poisoned by it. And I can't heal the poison."

Rachel felt fear wash over her. "So I'm going to die?" she asked, her voice ripping through an octave.

"No, no. You're not going to die again. I said I couldn't heal the poison, not that there wasn't an antidote. Your friends are going to get the plant that can heal you right now."

Rachel frowned. That's why Nico wasn't here, hanging over her. She kind of wished he was, even though she knew he was doing something to save her life. Then what Apollo had said really hit. "Did you say die again?"

Apollo frowned. "Did I say that? I didn't mean to." When he saw Rachel glaring at him, he sighed. "Ok, you did die, back at the ruins. But only for a minute or two."

Rachel took a moment to process that. She had died. She had actually died. Rachel couldn't wrap her head around it. "How did I come back?"

"The Spirit of Delphi is no match for some Leucrocotta poison. She brought you back."

"I didn't know that could happen."

"It's hard and it doesn't happen for most things. But if the body is still decently intact, she can shove your soul right back into it. Do you remember anything that happened?"

"I guess I remember right up to dying. But then, nothing."

"Hmm. Well, you should be fine in a day or two. The boy will be back by then."

"'The boy?' Do you mean Nico?"

"Yes, that one," Apollo said darkly.

"What, you don't like him?" she asked, suddenly defensive.

"No, I don't," Apollo said, scowling very uncharacteristically, "And I have good reason not to." he added, throwing a stern glare at Rachel.

If she hadn't been on the brink of death, Rachel probably would've have blushed as red as her hair. Instead she just glared back at him. "That's not a good reason to not like him. And it only happened twice."

"Twice is two too many times," he growled. Rachel knew his anger wasn't directed towards her. It was at Nico he was mad at. That didn't make her feel any better though.

Rachel tried to sit up, feeling uncomfortable having an argument while flat on her back, but white hot pain flared up from her side and she gasped, hot tears gathering in her eyes. She reached down when the pain subsided to what it had been before and pulled up her shirt, exposing her wound. She gaped at it.

It was green with unnatural purple streaks around it. The cut itself was large and long, starting just below her breast and stopping at her hip. It was open to the air and instead of blood, an acid green liquid was leaking out of it. Rachel's stomach rolled and she pressed a hand to her mouth to keep from vomiting. That would only cause more pain and her stomach would probably end up on the floor.

Apollo reached over and gently replaced her shirt over her side. "Don't worry about it. I'm doing everything I can."

"Why isn't there a bandage or anything?"

"That would only trap the poison. It's better to leave it open."

Rachel felt weak. It was almost surreal to see that kind of horrible wound on her own body. Apollo seemed to notice her freaking out. "Go to sleep, Rachel. We'll talk later." He leaned forward and pressed his fingers to her temple. Rachel's eyes fluttered closed and she immediately fell asleep.

* * *

 

Apollo stood up. He frowned down at Rachel's limp body. He didn't like how defensive she had gotten when he brought up that stupid boy of hers. He could tell he shouldn't have let him go so long without some kind of warning. That would change though. He would let that boy know that his Oracle was off limits, even to a son of Hades.

Apollo shook his head. What Rachel saw in his anyway was beyond him. Maybe she liked tortured souls or guys whose favorite color was black. Whatever it was, it needed to stop before she got too attached to him. Nothing good came from an Oracle falling for someone.

He leaned over and gently pressed a hand over Rachel side. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment. He could feel the poison taking over her body. He needed that antidote fast. Apollo murmured some words in Ancient Greek and felt the poison slow down and Rachel's body respond to the magic. But it wasn't enough.

It was all he could do though. Apollo sighed and stood up. He glanced at Rachel's pale face once before walking out of the room and firmly closing the door shut behind him.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

**Chapter Nine:**

Nico and Diane were lounging in the grass next to the shore. Nico was absently running his hand through the bright green grass, watching it ripple with rainbow colors while Diane lay on her back and stared at the cavernous ceiling of the Underworld, both of them lost in thought.

They had been sitting there waiting for Charon for a long time. Nico knew that Charon would come whenever he felt like it so he tried his best not to be anxious. They had come here the second they woke up; t would've sucked if they missed their boat across the lake. Charon didn't transport to the Isles of the Blessed often.

"I wish he would get here already," Diane muttered.

Nico shrugged. "He'll get here when he does," Nico said calmly, even though he was as impatient as Diane was. He didn't like waiting, especially not when he was doing something as important as finding an antidote to save Rachel's life. Nico was tense, waiting for Charon to appear. Every time a spirit wandered by he practically jumped up, thinking that it was Charon.

"What does Charon even do?"

"He basically takes newly dead spirits to the Judgment Pavilion or wherever else they need to go. He also babysits the spirits at the main entrance."

"Babysits? Don't they all go to judgment right after they die?"

"No. You don't go immediately, or most people don't. People usually have to wait around for Charon to take them. Could take years. Which is why you should always have some money on you, so if you die unexpectedly, you can bribe him."

Diane stared at him. "Death is just getting better and better," she muttered.

"Well, don't die and you won't have to worry about it."

"Thanks, Nico, for the words of wisdom. I just won't die. Problem solved."

"Always happy to help."

Diane rolled her eyes at him. "You're an idiot, do you know that?"

"You've told me many times."

"Well, remember it, little boy."

Nico scowled at her. "Don't call me little boy."

Diane grinned at him. "Why not?"

"Because I am literally like 60 years older than you. I am not _little_."

"Technically, you aren't older than me because you were frozen in time. That doesn't count. And your age isn't the only thing about you that's _little_ ," she grinned mischievously at the implication.

Nico glared at her. "Do you want me to prove you wrong? Because I will."

Diane made a face. "Ew, no. Keep it in your pants, Tiny."

"You really do want me to take my pants off, don't you?" Nico smirked at her expression. He could see why she liked teasing him now. It was fun to mess with her. But not as fun as it was to mess with Rachel; her expression when Nico snuck up on her would always be better than any expression Diane could pull.

"God, no. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that _anyone_ would want that."

Nico smirked again. "You need to wake and realize that I am extremely sexy. I'm offended that you haven't noticed yet."

Diane gave him the most incredulous look he had ever seen and he burst into laughter. Diane scowled at him while he fell back on the ground and laughed at her expense. Eventually she kicked his leg with her foot.

"You should have seen your face," he chuckled, holding his stomach.

"Shut up, moron. Anybody would have been surprised by such an insane statement."

Nico laughed again. They fell into silence. Nico closed his eyes and crossed his legs at the ankle, trusting Diane to let him know if Charon suddenly appeared.

He thought about Rachel. He felt a little bad for laughing with Diane while she was lying in bed, hurt. But he couldn't be sad all the time and he found it hard to sulk when he was around his friends, especially when he had such a great chance to mess with them.

Nico wondered how Rachel was doing. They hadn't gotten any kind of message from Apollo, so she must still be relatively okay, but Nico was worried. They had been in the Underworld for a long time and had made next to no progress with getting those stupid flowers. They hadn't even made it to the Isles yet and when they got there, they would have to figure out a way to get past the guardian and then they would have to go find the plants they needed.

Nico was mostly worried about getting past the guard. It would be easy to get to the Isles. He could bribe Charon to take them. But he had no idea what he would find when they go there. That made him nervous. Nico was in his father's domain – he should feel safe. Here, there was supposed to be nothing that would hurt him. But there was something dangerous on the Isles, something that _would_ hurt him. And he had no way to prepare for it.

Nico heard the distant screech of a Fury flying overhead. He opened his eyes and watched it. He couldn't tell which one it was, but it didn't do anything other than circle a couple times before flying off in the direction of the palace. Hades was probably sending to check up on what Nico was doing.

Hades was acting out of character at the moment. Nico would have thought he would have already found his son and tried to figure out what the hell he thought he was doing. Usually, Hades left Nico alone when he came to the Underworld, but he had also told Nico to not go to the Isles. And Hades did not like it when his son disobeyed him. Nico wondered why Hades hadn't done anything. Did he know that Rachel was hurt and that Nico wouldn't listen to him anyway? Or did he just think that Nico would get his punishment simply by going to the Isles?

Nico sighed and closed his eyes again. It didn't matter either way. Even if his father did come down here and try to drag Nico's sorry ass back to the palace, it wouldn't stop him. He wasn't going to back down on this quest. Rachel needed him and he was going to do his best to help her, no matter what the cost was.

Nico could see Rachel in his mind's eye. He could see her in the guest room bed, pale and sick. Even sick, she was still beautiful. She had looked peaceful in her comatose state, with her bright hair spread out around her and her hands folded on her stomach, like she was Sleeping Beauty waiting to be woken up. She would have been perfect if not for the horrible gash in her side that probably still had poison seeping from it.

Not for the first time, Nico wished Rachel had never become the Oracle. If she had never become the Oracle, she wouldn't have come on this crazy quest and gotten hurt. But if she was just some random mortal girl, Nico probably would have never met her too. She would never had gone to camp or known about demigods. She would never have met Nico or Percy or any of her half-blood friends. And she would never had known what all the strange things she saw where. Even though Nico hated that the Spirit of Delphi kept him from being with Rachel, he couldn't help but be grateful for it too. Without that, Nico would have never known her.

Nico shivered suddenly, a cold wave rolling over his body. He opened his eyes and leaned on his elbows. Nico looked around, trying to find the source of the feeling. That happened whenever a particularly strong ghost got close to him – a ghost like Charon.

"What?" Diane asked him.

"You don't feel that?" Nico frowned at her.

"No. What is it?"

"A spirit. A strong one. And our ticket to the Isles."

"Charon's coming?"

"Yup," Nico stood up and stretched. It was about damn time he got here.

Diane stood up too while Nico pulled out some drachmas. They waited a couple minutes before Charon appeared. He looked just like he usually did in the Underworld- skeletal with hollow eye sockets and wearing a long and dusty black cloak. He looked creepy, but Nico still preferred that to how he looked above ground. Those Italian suits he wore were heinous.

He was leading three other spirits to the coast. They were all wearing the same kind of cloak that he was. In fact, they looked like normal spirits, nothing special about them. Nico wondered what they must be thinking; if they were thinking anything at all.

Nico and Diane watched as Charon stepped up to the shore, where small waves lapped at the hem of his cloak. He knelt down and grabbed something from under the water. It was a large chain. Charon began pulling on it and before they knew it, there was a small boat floating in the water. It was made out of a single slab of wood, curved at the edges, like some kind of Native American raft you would see at a museum. There was a long oar inside of it, the wood half rotted and covered in slick, green mold. Charon picked it up and the other spirits piled in.

Nico stepped out of the shadow of one of the houses. Charon turned to him. Nico couldn't read his expression; he seemed to grin, but that could just be the fact that Nico could see his jaw bone beneath his translucent skin.

"How can I help you, son of Hades?" Charon asked him in his raspy voice.

"Me and my friend need to go to the Isles."

"That could be very dangerous for you."

"We know," he said nonchalantly.

Charon shook his head slowly, the cowl of his clock swinging with the movement. "You may be the son of Hades, boy, but I am not granting you any favors. I'll take you to the Isles when you're dead."

Nico ignored that. "We can pay you," Nico said, holding up his handful of drachmas.

Charon's gaze fixed on Nico's hand with a greedy look. Or what Nico assumed what was a greedy look. It was hard to tell when he couldn't see his face quite right.

Charon extended his hand. "It's your life."

Nico dropped the coins in Charon's boney palm and stepped into the small boat. Diane quickly followed, pressing against him in order to avoid being touched by the other spirits. Nico almost rolled his eyes at her, but he knew the dead could be unnerving to someone who wasn't as used to them as he was.

Charon clambered in and grabbed his oar. Their small boat started to move through the water, towards the Isles of the Blessed. Nico stared as the small islands got closer, but he couldn't see anything except for impossibly white sand and jungle trees. He couldn't see any houses and wondered if the spirits used them like they did in Elysium or if they just wandered around the islands.

"Do you think it's going to go after us the second we get there?" Diane murmured next to him.

Nico shrugged one shoulder and glanced down at her before looking back at the islands. "It could be waiting already. Or it could take a while for it to go after us. I have no idea."

"Maybe it will take a while to notice and we can get the flowers before it causes a problem," Diane said hopefully.

"We aren't that lucky."

Diane sighed. "I know. But we can hope. Maybe if we're really lucky the guard will leave us alone because you're Hades' kid. Or better yet, there is no guard and Hades just didn't want you to go there, so he lied about a guardian."

Nico shook his head and smiled. "Now you're just being ridiculous."

A ghost of a smile crossed Diane's face. They both were silent as the boat slid to a stop on the shore of the largest island. The three spirits immediately got out and drifted away into the deeper parts of the Isles.

Charon turned to Nico and Diane. "Good luck, half-bloods. I'll be seeing you soon," he winked his empty eye socket and turned the boat away.

"That was encouraging," Diane muttered.

Nico turned in a circle. He didn't see anything, just sand and trees. Whatever guarded the Isles hadn't gotten there yet. "Come on, let's go. Where do you think we should look first?"

"How the hell should I know where to look?"

"Whatever. Let's just walk then. The flowers are definitely not on the beach."

Diane shrugged and they walked into the thick jungle. Soon, they couldn't see anything except for the trees, the jungle trees were so closely packed together. It would've been easy to believe they were in an actual jungle except for one thing. It was silent. There were no sounds of bugs or animals. Even the leaves didn't move.

It was dark in the forest. With no sunlight to shine through the trees, Nico could barely see anything. Diane pulled out her katana, the faint glow of the Celestial Bronze casting a blue glow around them.

"What are these flowers supposed to look like?" Nico asked, swatting a large leaf out of his face.

"Apollo said they were supposed to be light purple with yellow stigmas."

Nico nodded and tried to keep an eye out for any purple flowers. It didn't help him much. The underbrush of the strange jungle was thick. Diane and Nico spent several minutes fighting through the crowded plants. Eventually the trees thinned and Nico was able to see the cavern roof through the foliage. It made him feel a little better about this whole thing, seeing something familiar.

Nico and Diane stumbled into a small clearing. Nico blinked a couple times to adjust his eyes. It was bright, brighter than it should have been. Sunlight streamed down on the small circular clearing. Nico looked up and instead of seeing the shadowy cave roof that usually encased him, he found a pale blue sky broken up by white fluffy clouds. Nico stared at the fake sky that looked real. He could almost believe that he and Diane had somehow escaped the Underworld and were standing on an island in the Caribbean.

Nico looked around at the plants that crowded the clearing. The garden was a riot of color; there were flowers everywhere, flowers of all different colors, mortal and godly. He could see plants found in an everyday garden in the mortal world and he could see some that were only found on Olympus or in Persephone's garden. There were even some strawberry bushes and fruit trees. Nico carefully picked his way through the plants, trying not to step on any. He scanned the ground, his eyes focusing on all of the purple flowers. There were a lot of them. He looked over at Diane and saw that she was doing the same thing.

Suddenly, Nico felt someone standing behind him. He whirled around, his left foot crushing some plant that made a high pitched, breathy sound, like air being let out of a balloon. There was a woman standing right behind him. Nico heard Diane gasp as she looked around at the noise and saw the woman.

She was tall, taller than Nico. She had dark skin and straight, long black hair that fell to her waist and wide set eyes that were a luminous blue and seemed to glow from the contrast with her dark skin and hair. She was wearing a simple, strapless gray gown and had strange tattoos on her arms and legs.

Nico had no idea who she was.

He knew she was no spirit. He could feel her aura, and it was stronger than any spirit in the Underworld. In fact, it seemed like the kind of presence he would feel when around a god. He took another step back, crushing another balloon plant under his boot.

The woman took a step with him. Nico stared at her face, trying to decipher her expression. He couldn't though – she had a perfect poker face. Nico swallowed. "Who are you?" he asked her.

The woman smiled. "My name is Macaria," she told him. She had a deep, throaty voice that was pleasant and strangely feminine.

Nico felt a swooping sensation in his stomach. He knew who she was. Macaria was the goddess of Death, the female counterpart to Thanatos. She wasn't as well known or as strong as Thanatos though. Nico hadn't even been sure of what she did in the Underworld until now. Apparently, she was the guardian of the Isles of the Blessed. And apparently Nico and Diane were totally screwed. There was no way they could defeat an immortal goddess in combat.

Diane walked over and stood next to Nico. He glanced at her and saw the exact things he was feeling on her face. They had no chance to get what they needed. Macaria could destroy them with just a wave of her hand. Nico was at a loss trying to figure out why she hadn't already.

"Why are you here?" Macaria asked them. Her tone was kind and curious. It set Nico on edge.

"We're looking for some flowers," Nico told her, knowing he sounded completely ridiculous saying that.

"Flowers?" Macaria raised her eyebrow.

"Yeah," Diane jumped in. "We need some Crocus flowers. Our friend was poisoned and we need the antidote."

Macaria looked amused. "You knew how dangerous it was to come here. You risked your lives for some flowers?"

"Our friend is dying," Nico said defensively.

Macaria smiled again. "You are very loyal, Nico."

Nico stilled. "How do you know my name?"

Macaria laughed and Nico stared at her. This was not how he thought this encounter would happen. "You are my half-brother, Nico. Father warned me you were coming here."

"He did?" Nico asked, shocked.

"Yes," she said thoughtfully. "He said something about you being a stubborn idiot that didn't know how to obey anybody, even when it was good for you. He asked me to allow you on the Isles."

Nico blinked. He hadn't expected any help from his father. When he warned Nico about not coming here, he hadn't thought Hades would have decided to help him, even when Nico disobeyed. He wondered why Hades didn't just make him deal with Macaria or try to stop him from going to the Isles in the first place. Why had he told Macaria to not kill him and Diane?

"Um, ok, so can we get the flowers and leave then?" he asked Macaria.

"Yes, you may," she smiled and disappeared in a burst of darkness.

Nico looked at Diane with raised eyebrows. "That was unexpected."

"You're telling me. I was over here thinking we were about to die and you and Macaria ended up having a family moment."

Nico smirked. "Sometimes having a shit ton of half-siblings can pay off. Now let's go find those damn flowers."

They walked around the garden until they found a patch of the Crocus flowers. Diane bent down and picked a dozen.

"You're positive that's them?" Nico asked her. It would be great if they came all this way and ended up getting the wrong flowers.

"Don't doubt me, Nico," she told him as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

Nico grinned and pulled on the shadows. He shadow traveled them back home.

Apollo looked at up at them from the couch when Nico and Diane suddenly appeared in the living room. "You're just in time," he grinned.

* * *

Rachel was floating. She didn't know where she was or what was happening. Everything was dark. She couldn't feel her arms or legs or any other part of her body. There was nothing under her and there was nothing above her. She was just floating.

She remembered the conversation she had with Apollo and she remembered the poison that was running through her veins, but the memories were vague and foggy, like they had happened a century ago. She tried to feel concerned or scared about what was going on with her, but she couldn't. She felt fine, nothing like she had when she had been lying on that bed, feeling like she had been ground to a pulp and then put back together again. Rachel wondered if the sensation of floating, of not feeling anything meant she was dying or already dead.

That should have made her sad. If she was dead, what would happen to Nico and Diane? What would happen to the Spirit of Delphi?

But Rachel didn't care. Nothing mattered to her. She was floating.

Suddenly, she felt heat. Warmth was coursing through her. It didn't hurt, but she could feel it. Like the kind of heat she felt when she was cold and drank something hot and could feel the warmth spread through her chest as the drink went down her throat. It felt like that, but in her whole body.

Then Rachel could hear voices. "You were lucky. She's almost gone." "Will she make it?" "I'm not sure." "How can you not be sure? You're the god of medicine!" "Nothing is set in stone." "Please keep her alive. She can't die."

Rachel felt a pressure bearing down on her. It pressed down on her chest, made the floating sensation go away. Rachel could feel her body again; feel the indescribable pain in her side that pulsed through her with every slow beat of her heart, the tiredness in her mind, the heavy, dead feeling in her limbs. She wished she was floating again.

As she slowly became more aware of her body, the pain grew. It was overwhelming. Rachel hoped it would end soon. She could still feel the warmth in her body and guessed from the conversation she heard earlier, that was the antidote Nico and Diane had gone to get. She wondered how long it would take for her to feel like herself again. She wanted to ask, hoping that Apollo was still in the room, but she couldn't move.

Instead of floating, Rachel felt frozen. The pressure still bore down on her, pining her down and making it hard to breathe. She couldn't tell how much time had passed since she first felt it. Rachel could feel her limbs and was aware of her body, but she couldn't feel the bed under her. It was strange. She wanted to know how long she had been like this and how close she had been to dying, but as far as she knew, there was nobody around to tell her.

After a long time, the pain in her side lessened. It still hurt, but it was more of a sharp soreness confined to her torso rather than a hot burning that coursed through her entire body. Rachel hoped that meant the poison was out of her body and the pain only came from the wound on her side.

Eventually, Rachel was able to open her eyes. She blinked several times to clear the bleariness and stared at the ceiling. She tried to move her arms, but her whole body felt sore and it was too much effort for her. Rachel looked at the window without moving her head and saw weak sunlight steaming through the glass. The sun was just visible behind the trees. It seemed to be early morning. How long had she been unconscious?

Rachel looked to the other side of the room and saw Nico curled up on a chair, fast asleep. He had one arm bent under his head as a pillow and the other was curled around his stomach. Rachel had a feeling that Nico hadn't meant to fall asleep, judging by the dark bags under his eyes. She didn't want to wake him up. He looked young and peaceful, sleeping like that. But Rachel also wanted to know what was going on and what had happened.

"Nico," Rachel tried to say. All that came out was a croak. Rachel must have been asleep for a long time. She cleared her throat, which felt like sandpaper. "Nico," she said again, louder. This time the word actually sounded like his name.

Nico jerked awake. He sat up and blinked in his confusion. His wide, dark brown eyes focused on her and he jumped out of the chair. "Rachel! You're awake," he said, sounding extremely relieved.

"I know," Rachel smiled faintly. "Can I have some water?"

"Sure." Nico handed her the glass with water beading down the sides that had been sitting on the dresser next to her bed.

Rachel tried to sit up but winced the second she moved. Nico noticed and sat down on the edge of her bed. He put his arm around her and helped her get upright. She leaned against his side and gulped down the cold water.

"How do you feel?" Nico asked her, his eyes concerned.

"Awful."

"I guess that's to be expected."

Rachel rested her head against Nico's collarbone and closed her eyes. She was tired, even though she only just woke up. "How long have I been out?" she asked Nico.

"A long time. Two days since I got back," he told her quietly. He sounded shaky.

Rachel looked up at him. "Thanks for saving me, Nico."

He frowned a little and looked away from her. Rachel stared at his jaw, which was in need of shaving. Rachel inspected Nico closely. His clothes were wrinkled, like he hadn't changed them in days. His hair was slightly greasy and he looked like he needed a long, uninterrupted nap.

"You wouldn't have needed me to save you if none of this had happened in the first place."

Rachel leaned away from Nico's chest and looked at his face. He didn't meet her eyes. She knew the look on his face though. "Are you actually blaming yourself for this?" she asked him incredulously.

When Nico didn't say anything, Rachel narrowed her eyes at him. "Honestly, Nico, how in the world could this be your fault?"

"If you hadn't tried to help me when I was hurt, you wouldn't have gotten bitten in the first place."

"Nico, you are an idiot."

"What?" he asked, looking down at her again.

"You're an idiot for thinking you can take any blame for this."

"I can't help it. And it _is_ my fault, at least a little bit. I should've done more," Nico muttered. He wasn't meeting Rachel's eyes again. Rachel sighed. Nico may usually seem like he was arrogant and cocky, without a care in the world, but he was almost completely the opposite. He had a lot of issues, deep down. Like the whole self-blaming, self-loathing thing he had going on. And his inability to move on. No, Nico may seem fine, but he wasn't, at least not all the time.

Nico was starting to worry her. Whenever they talked like this, he opened up a lot, let his guard down. He seemed sad at times and then the next second he seemed fine, just like his normal self. Rachel was having a hard time figuring out if the joking, sarcastic Nico was just a cover to hide all the other issues he was dealing with or if Nico just got sad when certain things were brought up.

Rachel sat up fully, ignoring the pain in her entire body. She glared at Nico, who looked sheepish. "Nico, you need to stop this," she told him firmly. "It's unhealthy. You need to learn to forgive yourself and _move on_. Holding on to all of this isn't good for you, at all. It's hard, but you can't just dwell on the past and forget about the present or the future."

Nico sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Rachel was starting to notice that he did that whenever he was agitated. "I know. It's just…hard to completely change. I know I should. I just can't."

"It's not going to happen overnight, Nico. You have to start small. Like now. Try and forgive yourself for what happened to me."

"Can we start smaller than that?"

"No."

"I'll work on it," he said with a half-smile. "Promise. Now lay down."

"Nico, we can't. What if someone walked in?" Rachel said, making her tone light and teasing.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Seriously, you look like you're about to pass out."

"I'm fine."

Nico shook his head and pulled her into his arms, pressing her against his chest. She sighed and snuggled close to him. "So where is everybody? I would have thought Apollo would've come in here by now," she asked him, looking up into his face.

Nico grimaced. "What?" Rachel asked.

"Apollo's out doing 'godly things.' Which I assume means he is out impregnating some poor woman. And Diane is asleep. It's still pretty early," Nico said quickly.

"I don't think the woman Apollo may or may not be sleeping with is that upset about it. He's pretty attractive."

Nico scowled furiously at her making Rachel grin devilishly. "You still haven't explained that face you made."

"What face?"

"Stop avoiding the question. You didn't want me to mention Apollo. Why? Did he threaten you?"

"Why would he threaten me?"

"Nico."

"Fine," he sighed. "When I got back, Apollo told me to back off from you. That's all," he told her reluctantly.

"I doubt that's all he said."

"Well, he also told me he would eviscerate me if I touched you and that he would throw my entrails in Tartarus. Which seems a little harsh to me, to be honest."

Rachel laughed a little, despite the fact that Nico's life was being threatened. It was just so like Apollo to come up with something like that.

"I don't see how that is funny," Nico admonished her. Rachel pressed her face into his chest, trying to muffle her giggles. Nico growled something under his breath and Rachel laughed again, harder this time. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot up her side, right where her injury was. Apparently, laughter came with pain. She gasped and pressed a hand to her side.

Immediately, Nico's hands were lifting her shirt and checking out the wound. Rachel looked down and saw blood seeping through long, white bandages. Nico swore under his breath. Rachel was a little relieved though. At least blood was coming out of the gash and not poison.

Nico leaned over and pulled more bandages out of the bedside table. "Hold your shirt up," he said to Rachel. She carefully held it up, making sure her breasts stayed covered. Normally, she wouldn't care if Nico saw her in only her bra, but she wasn't wearing one at the moment and she definitely didn't feel comfortable being completely shirtless.

Nico carefully unwound the gauze that was wrapped around her, revealing the long cut in her skin. Rachel felt woozy looking at it. It was weird looking down and seeing such a horrible injury on her body. Nico threw the bloody bandages on the floor and pulled some more out. He wrapped them around her torso, gentler than Rachel would have thought him capable of.

"So, anything important happen in the last two days?" Rachel asked when Nico was done and they were lying next to each other on her bed.

"No. Nothing. Does that hurt a lot?"

"I'm fine," she said, even though it did hurt. "Why hasn't Apollo done anything about it already? I mean, the poison is gone."

"He left right after he fixed up the antidote and made sure it was working. He also gave you something that was supposed to keep you from losing too much blood and keep the pain manageable. I haven't seen him since then," Nico said, looking pissed off about that.

Rachel frowned. That was pretty weird. Usually when she was hurt, he fussed so much Rachel had to pretend to be asleep or something like that just so he would leave her alone. "What exactly did he say he was going to do?"

"He literally said 'godly things.'"

"Well, that could be anything. And he hasn't checked in at all?"

"Nope. I would've thought he cared more about his Oracle," Nico muttered darkly.

"Well, whatever. If he's not here right now, that means he can't throw your entrails into Tartarus."

Nico laughed. "You know, I wonder how that would go down. Somehow, I don't think my dad would appreciate me being eviscerated."

"Neither would I. I mean, how would I explain that to Chiron?"

"If that happens, the official story is I was killed defending you from some ungodly horror. Tell no one how I really died."

"Sure thing, Nico. I'll make you sound cool, don't worry."

Nico grinned at her. "Thanks, Dare."

Rachel smiled back at him. "So where did you even get those flowers from? Tell me the whole story."

As Nico began to talk of how he and Diane saved her life, she curled up against his side and watched his face. She felt warm comfortable, lying there with him. And for once, she wasn't thinking about how hot he was or how much she wanted to kiss him. She was just with him and she was happy about that. It was a good feeling. It was so much less confusing and painful than how she usually felt when they had moments alone like this.

She listened to Nico, less focused on his words and more on the sound of his voice. She closed her eyes and was almost lulled to sleep. She would've slept except she wanted to listen to Nico's story. It was interesting and she liked listening to it. She laughed when he brought up Luke and her hairbrush.

Eventually though, the sun crept up from behind the trees and Rachel and Nico couldn't just lie in bed together. Nico had long since finished telling her about his mini quest and was just staying there with her, playing with her hair while she dozed off against his chest.

Nico poked Rachel's uninjured side and woke her up. "Come on. Diane's probably awake now. She'll be mad at me if she finds out you've been awake for hours and I've been hogging you."

Rachel tried to stand but had to sit back down when the pain that had been mostly dormant and manageable flared up again. Nico walked over to her, concerned. "I'm fine," she waved him off. "I'll just be staying in this bed for a while."

"You'll get bored in an hour."

"Well, I am not walking out of here anytime soon."

Nico seemed to think about something for a moment. Then, before she knew what happened, Rachel was in Nico's arms being carried out of the room bridal style. He smirked at her shocked expression.

Nico carried her into the living room and gently laid her on the couch. "Are you hungry?"

"Are you actually going to cook for me?"

"Don't sound so shocked," Nico muttered and walked into the kitchen.

"Don't burn anything down!" Rachel called to him.

"Shut up, Dare!" he yelled back.

Rachel grinned and turned on the TV, flipping through channels without really looking at the shows. She leaned up off the couch and looked over it when she smelled eggs and bacon being cooked and watched Nico's back as he stood at the stove. Rachel was surprised - she had no idea Nico could cook.

When Diane came down, she ran over to Rachel. "How do you feel?" she asked her, looking concerned and relieved.

"Fine. Nothing hurts if I don't move too much."

"Well, that's good. You want a blanket?"

"Yes please."

"Well, I'll go get one. Is Nico cooking?"

"Mhmm. I'm as surprised as you are."

"If he sets fire to something, let me know," she said as she walked back upstairs.

Nico came out of the kitchen with loaded plates. He set them down on the coffee table and handed one to her. Rachel painfully sat herself up and took it. "Are you sure you don't want me to feed you?" Nico asked her with another smirk.

Rachel stuck her tongue out at him and dug in. Once confronted with food, her appetite roared to life. Nico stared at her while she inhaled her breakfast. "Jesus, Rachel, it's called chewing."

"Shut up," she said, her mouth full.

Nico watched her polish off her plate and went to refill it. Rachel was starting to like Nico waiting on her hand and foot. When Diane came back and gave Rachel a thick and fuzzy blanket, they all sat in the living room, eating the huge amount of eggs and bacon Nico made. It was good he made so much – Rachel was starving.

"So, you guys haven't learned anything new?"

"Nothing. Apollo knows nothing and well, you're our next best source," Diane told Rachel.

"Hmm. Well, we know Chrysaor wasn't at the ruins we checked out. Have you guys looked into any others?"

"Yeah. We found a couple more that look promising. We were waiting for you to get better to check them out though," Nico said.

"That's all you've been doing the past two days?" Rachel asked.

"Well, it was kinda hard to do anything with Nico refusing to leave your side," Diane muttered.

"Shut up, Diane," Nico growled.

Rachel blushed a little. She knew Nico had been hanging around while she was asleep, but she hadn't thought he had been with her the whole time. Rachel thought back to when she felt like she was floating in the middle of nowhere and heard voices. The memory was fuzzy but she was certain it was Nico who said "Please keep her alive. She can't die" with a cracking, scared voice. It made her feel warm inside knowing how worried Nico had been.

"Well, I'm up and walking again. Sort of. Whenever Apollo comes by and fixes the rest of me, we can go check out one of the other places. Maybe this time we'll get the right one."

"As long as there are no Leucrocotta there too," Nico murmured.

* * *

Apollo didn't show up for two more days. For Rachel, that was two days of not being able to walk anywhere and having to be carried everywhere by Nico (which Rachel didn't mind until she needed him to take her to the bathroom) and the pain in her side steadily growing stronger until she spent all her time curled in a ball on the couch, trying not to cry, with Nico rubbing her back and cursing Apollo and Diane trying to calm Nico down and also cursing Apollo.

When he finally did show up, Rachel was afraid Nico was going to get turned into a pile of ash. He didn't hold back when he let Apollo know exactly what he thought of him. Rachel had to tell Nico to shut up when Apollo got that look in his eye that promised nothing good. Apollo already didn't like him and Nico seemed to only want to make the god hate him more.

Apollo was able to heal her in less than a minute and because of that, Rachel could see why Nico was so pissed. She had been wallowing in pain for two days while he did his mysterious "godly things" that he refused to tell any of them about. Rachel thought Nico was right in thinking Apollo had just gone and found himself a pretty girl to hook up with.

Rachel was completely back to normal and the only evidence that she had been hurt at all was a long, skinny, pale scar on her side. Rachel didn't mind it though. She had plenty of scars and one more didn't bother her.

Diane, Rachel and Nico decided on a location to go explore. The ruins were all that was left of the ancient city of Gaochang. The city used to be huge, full of people and life but it had been reduced to a bunch of old, crumbling stone buildings over time.

Apollo left right after he healed Rachel, hardly saying anything of importance. He was in a pretty cheerful mood the whole time she was around, so Rachel wasn't really worried about him, but she was curious. She bugged him about it for a while, but got nothing but vague answers in return. Eventually she just gave up. Apollo left, telling them good luck in finding Tyche and giving Nico a look that said Apollo wouldn't miss him if he happened to die.

* * *

"Do you feel anything?" Rachel asked Nico.

They were standing in front of the Gaochang Ruins in the middle of the night. Rachel looked at the towering stone walls with apprehension. Nico glanced at her.

"Oh yeah. Definitely something strong in there. And, if I'm not mistaken, a goddess as well."

"Really? You think my mom's in there?"

"I'm pretty sure. But I could be wrong. Goddesses are hard to pinpoint, especially minor ones."

They walked into the ruins and started looking around. Just like the last place, everything was silent, nothing moving, no bugs or small animals. It was ominous. Rachel looked around and tried to see anything out of the ordinary. She saw nothing. Glancing over at Nico, she saw the focused look on his face. She wondered what he was sensing.

After a while of looking around, Diane got restless. Rachel knew it was hard for her, even though she would never admit it, that her mom was being tortured and she could do almost nothing about it.

"We're getting nowhere," Diane huffed suddenly. "We should split up, cover more ground."

"Splitting up is not a good idea," Rachel told her.

"This is going too slow. I am going to search over there," she grumbled, walking behind a half fallen building and disappearing from sight.

Nico frowned after her, but did nothing to stop her. He looked over at Rachel. "Come on. Let's go. She's right, this is going too slowly. Tyche is here. I can feel it. We need to find her."

"Splitting up is still not a good idea. What if something happens to her?" Rachel asked, biting her lip.

"Diane can take care of herself. Come on," Nico took Rachel's hand and pulled her along. They continued walking through the ruins, weapons out and quiet, trying to detect movement in the shadows.

They found nothing for a long time. They crept through every part of the ruins until the sun peeked over the horizon. It wasn't until the light shone on the ancient city that they saw what they had missed walking through the dusty stones. And it wasn't something they wanted to see.

Ichor. Lots of it. A trail of the silvery stuff leading into the center of the ruins. "Diane!" Rachel called when she and Nico finally noticed it and realized what it was.

After a few moments of silence, Diane showed up out of nowhere. "What? What is it?"

Rachel pointed at the trail of godly blood. Diane stared at it for a long moment before pressing her hand over her mouth. "Mom," she whispered, looking stricken.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look who isn't dead. It took forever for me to get back into this story (this chapter was so late because I forgot I hadn't put it on this site) but the next one should be coming sometime soon. Hopefully. Anyway, enjoy and please review.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

Chapter 10:

"Do you really think this is the way in?" Nico asked Rachel dubiously.

"Positive. I can feel it," she answered confidently.

"Well, how the hell do we open it?"

"That part I don't know," Rachel admitted. "But it shouldn't be _too_ hard to figure out."

"Fantastic," Nico grumbled. He stared at the crumbling stone wall, trying to find what he was looking for. It looked like any other part of the ruins, but apparently it was the doorway to whatever Chrysaor was hiding underneath the ancient city. Rachel had pointed it out to Nico and Diane but they had yet to figure out how to actually get it open.

Diane hadn't said anything but she was staring at the wall with such a fierce glare, Nico thought the door might just melt away. She hadn't said much since they figured out that Tyche was not only here, but she was most definitely hurt in some way. Nico was honestly surprised Diane was still as composed as she was. He knew that she wasn't close with her mom – no demigod really was close with their immortal parent – but he knew that if he was in her situation, he would be freaking the fuck out.

Nico ran one of his hands over the wall. Nothing. He felt nothing except for gritty dirt. He sighed. They had been standing there for only a couple minutes, and he was already frustrated with this impossible door. He was just almost as anxious as Diane to get to Tyche.

Rachel, who had also been scrutinizing the stone wall, suddenly pointed. "There."

Nico looked at what she was pointing to. It was a small mark on the wall, something that looked like it had been there for centuries, just a scratch. But when he looked closer at it and tried to see it as something else, the more it looked like a letter. Not Ancient Greek, but some other similar language. Nico couldn't read it, but he knew it wasn't just some random mark on the stone.

Nico pressed his index finger to the mark. Suddenly, the thing burned white hot, like it was a tiny, concentrated flame. Nico swore and pulled his finger back. "Dammit," he hissed, looking at the angry blister. He glared at Rachel. "Next time, you have to do it."

"Hey, I'm a mortal. Me touching that wouldn't do anything."

Nico scowled at her, and then at the door. It hadn't done anything. "Isn't something supposed to happen?" he asked.

"Maybe you should touch it again," Rachel suggested innocently.

Nico glowered at her. "Maybe you should stop wishing pain on me."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Seriously though, try again. Maybe you didn't hold it long enough or something."

"But it hurts."

"Oh, stop being a baby, Nico. Just open the damn door," Diane grumbled.

Nico sighed. He hated it when they teamed up against him. He warily reached up again and pressed his already blistered finger against the almost invisible mark. He winced as it burned him but he kept it pressed against the stone. As fast as the heat came, it went and a low groaning sound came from the wall. Rachel, Diane and Nico backed away and watched as the large stones seemed to melt into the ground until they were looking into a gaping hole.

Nico couldn't see anything inside of it. He couldn't tell where it led, or how deep it was. All he could see was total darkness. He stepped up close to the hole, absently sucking on his hurt finger. He stuck his head in and looked down, trying to see if this was a drop or if they had to walk forward. Nothing.

He pulled his head out and looked at the girls. "So…who wants to go first?"

Rachel rolled her eyes and grabbed a rock from the ground. She walked over to the hole and dropped it. It clattered to the ground, unseen by them. "Well, now we know we aren't going to fall to our deaths the second we step in. How about you go first?"

"Fine," Nico shrugged. Now that he knew it was just a dark passage, he had no issues going in it. He was used to the dark.

Nico climbed into the hole and waited for Rachel and Diane to join him. He pulled out his sword and the metal threw a greenish light on the walls. "Can you put that away? It makes this way creepier than it needs to be," Diane said.

"It's this or complete darkness. Which would you rather have?"

Diane scowled at him and walked forward, leading the way. Nico and Rachel followed.

They walked for a long time. The tunnel they were in didn't change at all. The rock walls were slimy and the whole place smelled dank and moldy. Sometimes they heard what sounded like rats scratching at the walls and floor, and other times they heard other things, things that were definitely not rats.

They all froze as a roar broke the almost total silence. Nico couldn't tell if the source of the sound was close or not, but whatever made the sound was big and loud and definitely monstrous. Nico turned in a complete circle, his eyes probing the darkness, trying to see if there were any monsters lurking just out of sight. He couldn't tell if there was anything through his sense alone. They were too close to Chrysaor's lair for him to pick anything up – he had felt a monsters presence since they found the door to the tunnel.

Nico shook his head at Rachel and Diane. There was nothing there as far as he could tell. If there was, it probably would have shown itself already. They started walking again.

The closer they got to wherever it was they were going, the more they heard roars and other sounds. Every second, the silence that enveloped them was broken by some kind of screech or growl. It made the atmosphere in the tunnel even more eerie. The whole ordeal was staring to remind Nico of the time he spent travelling in the Labyrinth. He wondered if Rachel was reminded of that too.

They came upon a fork in the tunnel. It split into a smaller tunnel that turned sharply to the left and a bigger one on the right that seemed to curve through the darkness. Nico glanced at Rachel. "Any ideas?"

She shook her head. "None."

"Do you have any ideas Diane?"

Diane frowned as she looked at the tunnels. "Nothing concrete. But I have a better feeling about that one," she said, pointing to the tunnel on the right.

Nico shrugged. "Good enough for me."

The tunnel on the right was curvy and they all had to hold their swords up for light so that they didn't start running into walls. The monster noises had suddenly gone quiet so all they could hear were their echoing footsteps and each other's breathing. Even Nico was affected by the foreboding feel of the place.

Suddenly, everything went black. Nico could still fell his sword in his hand, but it was no longer casting light. Or, something was keeping it from doing so. Nico felt Rachel grab his hand and he squeezed hers.

They were all silent for a long time and nothing came out at them. Diane broke the silence between them first. "Should we just keep going?"

"I guess. We're not accomplishing anything by standing here," Nico said.

He heard Diane sigh and start walking again. Nico followed, still holding Rachel's hand.

It was harder to navigate the tunnel when they couldn't see and it wasn't straight. They all held their hands out in front of them and to the sides to keep themselves from running facefirst into walls. But they did end up with hands covered in slimy grime that Nico didn't really want to identify.

Eventually, they were standing in front of a circular door. It was made of Celestial Bronze and had a large handle. The metal was glowing so Nico could see Rachel and Diane's faces in the dim light it cast. Diane looked worried and anxious and Rachel looked wary.

"I really hope there isn't something waiting for us behind this," Nico muttered as he got a good grip on the handle and pulled. The door moved easily, surprising Nico because the thing had to be at least a foot thick. Nico wondered why the door was so big when it was obvious this place didn't need that much protection from mortals and Chrysaor obviously didn't care about whether or not demigods could get it.

The corridor that the door led to was lit with torches at regular intervals on the walls. Nico could see sand on the ground and the walls were made of stone and metal.

Nico climbed in and looked around. This corridor was warmer than the tunnel that had come from but he still had a sense of foreboding. It made him uncomfortable. He kept expecting a monster to jump out at him at every corner. Which, Nico supposed, could very well happen.

Nico helped Diane and Rachel over the wall and Rachel frowned at her surroundings. "This looks exactly like my dream."

Diane raised an eyebrow. "Do you know the way around this place then?"

"No...it just seems really familiar. Maybe it'll be easier when we're farther in."

"Well, let's go then," Diane said.

They walked down the sandy corridor for what seemed like forever. The thing was never ending. Every part of it was identical, too. Sand everywhere, iron brackets holding torches, shadows in between the fires, and walls made of metal and stone.

When they finally reached the end of the corridor, there was another metal door. Nico looked at it and sighed. "What is with this guy and circular doors?"

"Does it matter, Nico?" Diane asked.

"No, but I'm getting tired of them," he said as he pulled on the door's lever. Nothing happened. Nico pulled harder, grunting with the effort. Still nothing happened. He stepped back and glared at the thing. "Why is this one not opening and the other one did?"

"Maybe it's stuck?" Rachel said.

"Or maybe Nico's a weakling," Diane said.

Nico glared at her. "Why don't you try then?"

Diane rolled her eyes and grabbed the handle. She pulled and the door swung open easily. She turned to Nico. "See, easy."

"What the hell?" Nico asked incredulously.

"I guess I'm just stronger than you," Diane told him smugly.

"Whatever," Nico grumbled and climbed through the hole. He really was getting tired of climbing through things.

Unfortunately for him, the drop from the door to the ground was greater than he had anticipated and he fell in a heap in front of it. He cursed as he picked himself up, blushing a little at Rachel and Diane's laughter.

"That was extremely graceful, Nico," Rachel giggled as she took Nico's hand and slid through the door.

"You would have done the exact same thing."

"Actually, we probably would have looked before jumping," Diane told him as he helped her through. "But your way was funnier."

Nico sighed and brushed the sand off his clothes. He knew it would be best to accept his role as comic relief, but he didn't like it. He hated it when the girls laughed at him. The metal door swung shut with a low groan and the room they were went completely black.

"Honestly, does this guy have something against lighting too?" Nico grumbled.

"Shut up, Nico," Diane's voice said from his right.

"Hush you two. I know this place," Rachel said.

Nico turned to where he thought her voice was coming from. "From your dream?"

"Yeah. I remember that I saw Tyche being tortured around here. I had to walk through this room for a while, but I saw it from here."

Nico reached out until he felt Rachel hand. He entwined his fingers with hers and pulled her close. "Well, lead the way then."

Nico felt Diane's hand brush his upper arm and wrap around it. Rachel moved forward and Nico and Diane followed.

Nico was glad he was here with Rachel and Diane. He could tell this room, or cavern, or whatever it was, was huge. It was completely silent, save for the sounds of him and the girls walking. Nico was usually pretty good with dark places, but this room would not have been something he would have wanted to walk through by himself.

Nico wondered what they were going to find at the end of this room. Would it be nothing, just and empty space where Tyche used to be or would they find Tyche, beaten and bloody? Or even worse, would they find Chrysaor or some monster waiting for them? Nico found himself hoping they would find Tyche, relatively ok and Chrysaor nowhere in sight so they could escape before anybody even noticed they were here. If they didn't know already.

They walked through the oppressive darkness for what seemed like hours. The entire time, Nico was strung tight and anxious, just waiting for something bad to happen. He kept thinking he was seeing some empousai hanging around, and once even a hellhound, even though he knew it was just his imagination getting to him. Even if there was a monster hiding and waiting for them, he wouldn't be able to see it. He couldn't see Rachel and Diane, and they were right next to him.

Nico blinked and then blinked again, just to make sure he was really seeing what he was seeing. He could see a speck of light in front of him. When they reached it, Nico saw that part of the floor was broken, creating a ledge. The light was coming from what was below them. Leaning over, Nico could see what looked like an arena filled with cages. Most of them were hanging from thick chains at the same level as the ledge, but several were resting on the ground. Those were filled with bodies, some of them nothing more than bones, but other were fresher and rotting. Nico was glad he was seeing them at a distance.

Only one cage was filled with someone living. Or at least, Nico assumed she was alive. The prisoner was a woman, tall and willowy, but also horribly skinny. She had short black hair that was ragged and uneven and Nico could see blood staining the back of her shirt. She was lying down, curled on her side, seemingly asleep.

Diane moved closer to the edge. Nico held a hand out to stop her, not trusting the strength of the crumbling rock floor. From the look on her face, Nico could guess that the woman in the cage was Tyche.

Nico glanced at Rachel and saw the worried look she threw at Diane. Nico tilted his head to the side and she nodded. Nico pulled Diane away from the light and back into the darkness. They needed to come up with a plan to get Tyche out of there.

Nico turned to Rachel first. "Do you know a way to get down there?" he asked, his voice seeming way too loud in the silent cavern.

"No. This is exactly where I was in my dream."

"Hmm. Well, there has to be some way to get down there."

"There is," Rachel murmured thoughtfully. "I don't know where it is exactly but in my dream I saw Chrysaor in this room and then the next time I saw him he was at the cages. There _has_ to be a way to get down there."

"Do you remember where the room is?" Nico asked her.

"I think so. It was around here somewhere. I guess we'll just have to look."

Rachel grabbed his and Diane's hands and started leading them to wherever this mystery room was. Nico hoped she knew where she was going, at least a little, because otherwise they were going to get seriously lost.

"So what are we going to do after we find a way down there?" Diane asked.

Nico shrugged even though he knew she couldn't see him do it. "We break the cage open and escape."

"We all know it won't be that easy."

"Yes," Nico allowed. "But it's the best we can hope for."

He heard Diane sigh. "What if we run into Chrysaor?"

"We try to not die."

"You're being very optimistic today, Nico," Rachel told him matter-of-factly.

"I try."

They walked through the darkness and Nico felt his paranoia grow. He wondered what this room _was_. It had to have some use. Nico couldn't help but imagine horrible things the darkness of this place could be concealing. He couldn't help but think there were hoards of monsters watching them, waiting for Chrysaor to give them the ok to kill them all. Nico wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

Rachel stopped. "The door is around here somewhere."

"So how do we find it?" Diane asked.

"Luck," Nico told her.

"Don't you start with the lucky thing again, Nico," she hissed at him.

"I wasn't. But we'll really need some if we're going to find this door and not get caught."

"It's on the right. I remember that," Rachel told them.

"Well, that's something," Nico muttered.

It took them hours to find the right door. After they all got leg cramps from crouching in the darkness and felt some very strange things with their hands, they found the right one. Every time they found a door, they spent a couple minutes listening at it, trying to hear something frown within before they opened it to check. Luckily for them, no one was home. Every room they came across was completely deserted. If it weren't for the charts and candles that littered tables and the floor, Nico would have thought this area of the ruins wasn't being used at all.

It worried Nico that they didn't find anybody. It was obvious Chrysaor had a small army of monsters at his command. So where were they? Unless he kept them somewhere deeper in the depths of the hidden ruins, they seemed to have vacated the place completely.

They were inside the right room and Diane insisted they look through it. Nico didn't understand why she wanted to, but he guessed it made sense. While they were here, they might as well try and figure out what the hell Chrysaor was hoping to do in the first place.

Rachel had found a candle somewhere and lit it. The faint red glow dispelled some of the room's shadows, but not a lot. Rachel held it up to a map on the wall. It was old, the paper cracked in places and worn translucent in others. It was written in Ancient Greek.

Nico leaned close to it. The land masses and lakes didn't look quite right. Nico guessed this map was from a long time ago, and wasn't completely accurate. There wasn't anything special about it. He tried to see what Chrysaor had it pinned up for, because it must be important somehow.

But there was nothing on it. "It's nothing useful. Probably just there for a reference or something."

"Maybe we should check out all of those charts?" Diane gestured to the rolled up scrolls on the table next to them.

"This is a waste of time," Nico said. "We should just go down and rescue Tyche already. That's the whole point of this quest in the first place."

"What good is just rescuing her if we don't know why she was taken in the first place?"

"I mean, Tyche probably has a good idea of why she was kidnapped."

"How much do you think Chrysaor is sharing with his prisoners?"

"Diane's right, Nico," Rachel interrupted. "We should find out as much as we can before we go down."

Nico sighed. "Fine." He walked over to the table and Rachel followed him, holding the candle so that he could read the scrolls. Diane walked over too and looked over Nico's shoulder. She wasn't as good with Ancient Greek as he was and Rachel couldn't read the language at all.

Nico frowned down at the letters. "Nothing makes sense. He keeps talking about 'Dear Mother' and getting revenge on 'those who betrayed my blood.' And you know, taking down Olympus and all that good stuff."

"So he kidnapped my mom so he could take down Olympus?" Diane asked. "That seems a bit strange."

"Which part? Taking down Olympus or using your mom to do it?"

"Both," Diane muttered. "How would kidnapping my mother help him take over Olympus?"

"He said in my dream that he wanted her help with something. Maybe he wants her help taking over?" Rachel said.

"But why Tyche? What would make him think she would want to or be able to help him take over?" Nico wondered aloud. "Why not go to a god who's already shown they wouldn't mind Olympus being taken over? Like Hecate or Morpheus? Both of them are stronger than Tyche anyway."

"Tyche is closer to the Olympians. Maybe he wanted to use a loyal goddess? That would be a bigger blow to Olympus," Rachel mused.

"But he should have known she wouldn't have gone along with him. It would have been easier to get the help from a god who already went against Olympus. It wouldn't have been as big a shock to Zeus and the other Olympians, but it still would've been a problem for them."

"Maybe he thought my mom wasn't as close with the Olympians as she is?" Diane guessed.

"I doubt that. Chrysaor would have done his research before deciding which goddess to kidnap," Nico told her.

"Well, now we know for sure he wants to take over Olympus. We could have guessed that," Rachel said. "But what was all that about his mother and revenge?"

"I have no idea," Nico sighed. "It didn't say much about either of them. But maybe with the revenge thing, Chrysaor feels, I don't know, _slighted_ by the gods somehow and wants to get back at them? I have no idea what his mom has to do with it."

"Maybe his mom was some kind of monster or something and the gods treated him like shit because of it?" Rachel said thoughtfully.

"Oh, very good, Rachel Dare," a deep voice said behind them.

Nico whirled around, drawing his sword. The candle Rachel had been holding went out as she dropped it and the room was pitch black again. But Nico could see Chrysaor in the dim light from his sword. Or he could see the mask Chrysaor wore – the light from his sword reflected off of it.

Nico felt cold. They had been found by Chrysaor. The very monster that wanted to take over Olympus and had successfully kidnapped a goddess. Nico knew they should have just gone down and rescued Tyche, not waste their time going through Chrysaor's charts and notes. If they hadn't stuck around, they probably would've already found Tyche and gotten out of here. Now, they were trapped.

"So, it seems I've been found out," Chrysaor said, waving a hand and causing all the candles in the room to flare brightly. "Congratulations. I've been outwit," he continued, sounding amused, like they were a group of young children who thought they had successfully snuck up on their father and he was humoring them.

"Now. We'll have to do something about this, won't we?" Chrysaor said nastily. He snapped his long brown fingers and ropes shot out from the corner of the room and wrapped around their arms. Chrysaor laughed from beneath his mask, which shimmered like liquid in the candle light.

Nico wondered why he wore the thing. It had to ridiculously heavy, and it was horrible looking as well. The mask was completely gold, made to look like a gorgon's face and hair. It snarled at them, looking way too realistic for Nico's liking. Nico couldn't decide if he thought Chrysaor wore it because he liked it or if he was hiding something under that gold mask.

"Follow me," Chrysaor said, as if they had a choice. An empousa appeared behind them, forcing them to follow Chrysaor. Well, at least they were going to find the way to the cages, Nico thought to himself.

Rachel glanced at Nico as they went down. She seemed to try and communicate the danger they were in, like Nico didn't already know. He only hoped that when they got to the cages, Chrysaor would leave them and they could come up with a plan to get the hell out of there.

Chrysaor led them down a narrow staircase, well lit and with worn down steps. More than once, Nico slipped on the smooth stone and barely kept himself from falling. He walked next to Rachel, Diane in front of them, Chrysaor in front of her, and the empousa behind him.

Nico winced as the empousa hissed at him, her cold breath brushing against the back of his neck. He was finding her constant whispering at him distracting and annoying; like he would actually take her up on any of her offers. He knew she was only after him because he was probably the only male she had seen in who knew how long.

Nico flinched as the empousa nipped at the back of his neck. He felt blood trickle down into his collar. The empousa purred in his ear and Nico leaned his head forward in an attempt to keep her fangs away from his throat. Rachel threw him an amused look and he glared at her. They were basically walking into their graves and she was laughing at his attempts to ward off the flirty empousa.

Nico was actually relieved when they reached the floor of the arena. Chrysaor sent the empousa away and the monster pouted at him as she left. Nico sent the most hateful look he could muster at her and she smirked at him. Nico could see Rachel rolling her eyes at him.

Chrysaor turned to them and his eyes raked over them, like he was trying to decide the most enjoyable way to kill them. His eyes were the only things Nico could see through his mask, just a cruel glint behind the gold. He snapped his fingers again and three cages descended to the ground, the doors already thrown open. Chrysaor flicked his fingers at Nico and he was thrown into the nearest one. Chrysaor did the same to the girls and laughed at them while they righted themselves inside their cages. Nico was in the cage in between Rachel and Tyche and Diane was next to Rachel.

The ropes fell of Nico's arms and curled at his feet. Nico glanced to his left and saw that up close, Tyche was even skinner than he had thought before. Blood crusted her arms and neck and was dried on her clothes. She looked awful. Nico noticed she was wearing two bracelets, both glowing a bright blue and carved with strange symbols. Nico had never seen anything like them before.

Chrysaor crossed his arms across his chest and stared at them. "So, you have deduced enough to know that I believe Olympus's time has ended. You must be bursting with curiosity about everything you don't know."

"Are you really going to do this?" Nico asked before he could stop himself.

"Do what?" Chrysaor asked him silkily in his accented voice.

"Tell us your entire plan. It's stupid really, for you. When we escape we'll know everything you want to do and how you're going to do it."

Chrysaor raised a hand. "And that's just it, son of Hades. You aren't going to escape."

"That's what they all say."

"I am not like them. You will not leave this place alive," Chrysaor said smoothly. Nico had a feeling he was grinning under that mask and he was almost glad he couldn't see Chrysaor's true face. It was probably more disturbing than the gorgon mask.

"Now, that being said, I believe I can tell you what I plan. However, telling you exactly what I plan to do? No. That would be foolish indeed. But since you already know so much, what's wrong with giving you a little more information? I might as well satisfy your curiosity."

Chrysaor started pacing in front of the cages. "I suppose the first thing you're wondering about is how I knew you were here. Well, I knew you were after my trail the second you entered China. I had hoped you would have let it go after all the monsters I sent your way, but you demigods are a persistent lot, aren't you? But of course, no one can enter my ruins without me knowing.

I waited for you to find my…office I guess you would call it. Waited for you to get on the right track. I didn't intend for you to read through my documents, but it hardly matters. I would be surprised if you hadn't already guessed my intentions. Yes," he mused, "I do want to overthrow those moronic Olympian gods. They have ruled for long enough and not the way they should," Chrysaor finished with a growl.

"Their rule is better than any others," Nico told him.

"Bah," Chrysaor waved his hand dismissively, "The Titans, that is who you are thinking about, yes? I do now wish them to rule either. It would be complete anarchy with Kronos ruling the world. Neither he nor Zeus deserve a throne."

"And you think you would be better than either of them?" Rachel demanded.

"I know I would, but I do not plan to rule Olympus or the world. I just simply want their rule to end and let the world go on as it should. Free," Chrysaor said vehemently, stopping in front of her cage door.

"And what would you do with the gods after you defeated them?" Rachel asked.

"The same they did with the Titans. Prisons, torture. What the Olympians deserve."

"That is completely insane," Diane scoffed. "You can't just go and take over Olympus with a bunch of empousai and Scythian dracanae."

Chrysaor turned to her and said nothing for a second. He merely looked at her. "You may believe that now, but imagine what will happen when the gods see how strong I am. They will join me, as they did with Kronos. The Olympians are divided and that makes them weak. If it were another time, I would not dream of taking on the gods, but now, now they cannot hold their own against my forces, or any other. I am going to defeat them before they can become strong again."

Chrysaor seemed manic as he said this. Nico could tell he truly believed he could pull it off. That scared Nico more than the thought of destroying Olympus. Many thought it was time for Olympus to fall, but hardly any of them actually believed they could do it. And if they did, no one actually tried, save for Kronos and a couple other groups that were destroyed easily.

But Chrysaor was right. Olympus was weak and divided. They still had not recovered from Kronos' attack and many gods, especially the ones who sided with Kronos, thought that something should change, that Zeus should change the way he rules over them or step down altogether. Now would be a perfect time for someone to try and overthrow them.

But Nico couldn't imagine a world with the gods imprisoned and nobody to rule. The gods kept the world spinning, controlled the natural order of things. Nico knew what his father did in the Underworld and couldn't imagine what would happen down there if he were gone, if there were no gods or goddesses.

It made Nico feel almost sick to think about what the world would be like without the gods. It would be as bad as when the Titans ruled. He couldn't imagine it. And that is exactly what Chrysaor wanted. Complete freedom from the gods, from any kind of rule. He wanted the world to exist by itself, with no control, no nothing.

"Why?" Nico asked suddenly.

"Why what?" Chrysaor asked politely, cocking his head to the side slightly.

"Why do you want Olympus to fall? What is so bad about their reign?"

"Many things, little demigod," Chrysaor said cruelly. "You may think they are good rulers, but you are a god's offspring. They would have no reason to treat you wrongly. But, for the son of a monster, there is no good treatment at the hands of the gods. For the son of Medusa, there is nothing but cruelty.

You see, I was born when Medusa was slain, born from the blood that fell from her neck. I did nothing to warrant the treatment that was given to me. My birth was not my sin, but the gods treated it as such. They saw only my gorgon mother in me.

And it was only me that was treated that way. My brother was born the exact same way, to the same mother, and he was never treated the way I was. I was treated like a monster while he was revered as a god. He still is held is such high esteem, that blasted winged horse, Pegasus."

"Really? You're going to destroy Olympus because you weren't the family favorite?" Nico said incredulously.

Chrysaor growled, a menacing sound that hissed out through the gorgon's gold mouth. "I never deserved what I got from them. And I will prove myself. I am not some weakling they can push around and bully. I am not weak like my mother was. And for far too long I have accepted my fate, accepted my treatment. But no longer. I will prove that I am strong, as strong as my brother and any god."

"And what exactly does Tyche have to do with any of this?" Rachel asked.

Chrysaor seemed to shrug, but it was hard to tell with his heavy helmet almost resting on his shoulders. "She is the goddess of luck. I could use her help. But she is more stubborn than I had anticipated…"

Chrysaor suddenly shook his head. "Well, that is all you precious demigods need to know," he sighed. He started pacing in front of their cages again. "Hmmm," he murmured. "I wonder which one of you would be best..?" he trailed off, tapping one of his long fingers against his metal chin.

Nico didn't want to know what he was thinking about. Chrysaor stopped in front of each of their cages momentarily, eyeing them with his hungry gaze. He seemed to linger at Diane's, but moved on just the same. Finally, Nico couldn't take his muttering anymore.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he snapped when Chrysaor stopped in front of his cage for the third time.

"Well, it is helpful to know what the enemy side is doing. And here are three, up to date demigods just waiting for their brains to be picked. Well," Chrysaor purred, titled his head toward Rachel, "two demigods and an Oracle." Chrysaor cackled harshly.

Nico suddenly found it hard to breathe. It wasn't hard to figure out what Chrysaor was going to do with them. He wanted information and none of them were going to give it up. He was going to torture them for it, even though none of them knew anything of vital importance.

A sudden thought struck Nico and he whipped his head around to look at Rachel. Chrysaor knew she was the Oracle. He knew she could hold invaluable details of Olympus and a thousand other things, if he could get them out of her. Which he wouldn't. He would end up torturing Rachel to death.

Nico felt nauseous. Chrysaor was going to _kill_ her, probably right in front of him. They had to get out of there.

Chrysaor stopped in front of Rachel's cage and Nico felt his heart skip a beat. But before he could reach for the handle, an empousa stepped up behind him and whispered something that Nico couldn't hear. Chrysaor sighed, seeming resigned to something. He shook his head and looked at Rachel. "Now is not the time for an interrogation it seems. But do not fret, my dear, I will be back soon. And then you can spill all your dirty little secrets." Chrysaor laughed again as he swept out of sight with the empousa trailing behind him.

Nico stared at Rachel's pale face. She looked terrified. Nico wished he could do something about it, but there was nothing. He couldn't do anything from inside this cage and he didn't see any ways out. The metal bars were made of Imperial Gold so he couldn't slice through them and there was no lock on the doors for him to pick. Nico wanted to kick the bars but knew all that would result in was him probably breaking his foot.

But standing there thinking about how awful their situation wasn't going to do anything to fix it.

He reached out and grabbed one of the bars, intending to see how sturdy they were but when his hand touched the metal, it flared, hot and burning, and Nico jerked his hand back, cursing. "Why does that always _fucking happen_?"

"Maybe you should just stop touching things, Nico," Diane told him.

Nico glared at her and blew on his blistered hand. That hurt like a bitch. "So how the hell are we going to get out of here? And rescue Tyche while we're at it."

"I'm working on it," Diane told him.

Nico watched as Rachel sat down, careful to not touch the bars of her cage. "Well, can we come up with a plan fast? I really don't want to be tortured."

"You aren't going to be tortured," Nico growled. "I am not going to let that happen."

"How are you going to stop it?" Diane raised an eyebrow at him.

"I don't know, but he is _not_ going to hurt her."

Rachel smiled at him. "If we don't find a way out of here, he will hurt me and you too. So let's come up with a plan."

Nico sighed and dropped to the sandy floor, clutching his burned hand to his chest. He glanced over at Tyche's cage and saw that that the goddess was still passed out. Nico wondered if it would be worth it to wake her up, but decided against it. She probably didn't get that much sleep. They could afford to let her rest while they cooked up a plan to get all of them out alive.

Nico tapped his foot on the ground and looked around the arena. There really wasn't anything helpful. There was only one way out and it led straight to Chrysaor's little study, so even if they found a way to escape the cages they would still have to figure out how to escape the ruins.

Then a sudden thought hit him and he stood up abruptly. Both Rachel and Diane stared at him, roused from their own thoughts and plans. "What?" Rachel asked him.

Nico grinned at her and pulled out his ski mask. Rachel blinked and then grinned too. Chrysaor had forgotten to search them.

When Nico got Rachel and Diane out of their cages, they all stood around Tyche's wondering the best way to wake her. Nico thought Diane should go in, as she was Tyche's daughter and the goddess would probably recognize her, but Diane and Rachel thought they should try to wake her up before going in to get her. It was likely Tyche would lash out at anybody who got too close to her.

Rachel walked up close to Tyche's cage and knelt down in front of it. Nico had no idea what she was looking for, but he dismissed it. Rachel always was looking for things he wouldn't think about. He felt Diane looking at him and raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"Nothing," she said, walking closer to him. "Just wondering about something."

"What?" Nico asked again.

"Do you really think you're gonna get out of here?"

"Um, yes? Why wouldn't we?"

"Chrysaor seems to want to keep us."

"I don't give a damn what Chrysaor wants. We have to get out of here. And fast."

Diane shrugged. "It's gonna be pretty hard for you to escape."

"What makes you say that?"

"I don't know."

Nico wanted to take a step back. Diane was seriously in his personal space. He turned back to Rachel just in time to see her head whip around and take in her horrified stare. Nico looked back at Diane and saw the grin on her face and the gleam in her eye just before he felt a horrible, sharp, white hot pain in his midriff and the feeling of warm wetness spread across his torso.

Nico looked down and saw the hilt of a knife embedded right below his ribs and then everything went black.


End file.
